


Sacrifice Enough and Maybe I Won't Drag You to Hell

by 6Space_Witch9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination Attempt(s), BAMF Padmé Amidala, Brotherhood, Caring Anakin Skywalker, Clone Trooper Culture (Star Wars), Criminal Investigation, Dark Anakin Skywalker, Dehumanization, Denial, Episode: s05e18 The Jedi Who Knew Too Much, He's conflicted, Hurt/Comfort, In this house we respect Mace Windu, Internal Conflict, Legal Persecution, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Militarization of the Republic, Mind Control, Multi, Padme gets to be the ball buster she truly is, Panic Attacks, Politics, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Power Dynamics, Power Imbalance, Rape Aftermath, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Sexual Coercion, The Jedi are not politically powerful, The Jedi handle the bombing case internally so the outcome is different, Victim Blaming, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:35:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27028942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6Space_Witch9/pseuds/6Space_Witch9
Summary: What was he supposed to say? No? Ahsoka is a kid! A kid with the entire army snapping at her heels, he had thought maybe it would stay his hand, convince him to do  proper trial and investigation and throw out the faulty blame that sits heavily on her shoulders.He had foolishly thought that he had sacrificed enough of himself to satisfy him.He was wrong.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CC-1010 | Fox & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody & CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Anakin Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex & CC-3636 | Wolffe, CT-7567 | Rex/Other(s), CT-7567 | Rex/Wilhuff Tarkin, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & CT-7567 | Rex, Sheev Palpatine & Wilhuff Tarkin
Comments: 89
Kudos: 148
Collections: Captain Rex Stuff, Commander Wolffe Stuff





	1. Stay the Executioner's Hand

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [O Dark O'Clock](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26947051) by [coruscantguard (nadiavandyne)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/coruscantguard), [nadiavandyne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiavandyne/pseuds/nadiavandyne). 



> So this fic is heavily inspired by nadiavandyne's fic O Dark O'Clock, big thanks to them for allowing me to use their work as inspiration, they were so sweet when I asked over tumblr so go over and check out their work! They have a good writing style that I really enjoyed.
> 
> This is going to be pretty grim when dealing with the power imbalance and sexual coercion for favours when perpetrated by a superior officer and other sexual abuse directed at clones, it deals with how powerless the Jedi really are in the political realm and how they have little influence, also dealing with criminal trials and the steps take to report sexual assault to allow a criminal investigation. 
> 
> I myself never reported my own sexual assault so this is also going to be taken from my own experience, if you think I should add any warnings or tags please tell me! 
> 
> There will never be any graphic depictions of rape, it will be all implied or mentioned/discussed etc..

“Well Captain, you have given me much to think about. I do believe that this meeting has been quite productive. How unfortunate that Skywalker couldn’t attend our meeting, I wonder what he would do to help save his doomed Jedi learner. This entire mess definitely makes one think about where her loyalties lie.” Tarkin says as he leans over Rex’s back.

_Don’t say anything, remember you’re a flesh droid, you’re not supposed to have feelings._

_Breathe cadet, you are the master of your own body. Do not let your own mind master you._

“Hopefully it’s a misunderstanding Admiral.” Rex replies robotically, he doesn’t cringe away or shiver when the Admiral pulls away from him _, out of him._

“One can hope Captain, we can surely hope. I only want justice for the souls stolen far too soon by this vicious act of violence.” Tarkin says as he readjusts his uniform and throws the condom in the trash.

His attitude rakes along his nerves like a metal prod to a live wire, vicious and unrelenting.

Where is Skywalker? He was supposed to be here at this meeting with him, why had Rex gone into the office alone?

 _That’s right_ , he went in hoping to stall for his Jedi General, give him more time to catch up to Ahsoka. He had been a fool, an eopie walking to its own slaughter.

“Of course Admiral Tarkin, I believe everyone is hoping for that resolution.” He says as he peals his sweaty chest off the utilitarian desk he had been bent over, he agreed to this, this was for Ahsoka he can’t go regretting what he has done.

He hopes he has sacrificed enough to save her, what more could he give, he is nothing to the man, more than that he is used nothingness.

 _Don’t throw up, don’t show him he has control over you_. Pull your blacks up, strap your armour on solider and prepare yourself for war, it’s what you were born to do, you can handle pain.

_You said yes._

The thought almost makes him choke on the crushing anxiety building in his chest. He straps his armour over top of his blacks and he can only hope that the plastoid will be strong enough to hold back the torrent of raging emotions that swirl in his body.

_What was he supposed to say? Ahsoka is 16! A kid running for her life from brothers that have been ordered to bring her in for her own execution._

_He hopes he gave enough to her executioner to stay his hand._

“I want to see you again Captain, this has been so insightful I want you in my office again tomorrow. Alone, is my request an unreasonable one?” Tarkin says as he places a hand on Rex’s lower back.

The touch of a lover, he has to stop himself from whipping around and slugging the man across the face.

He knows not to underestimate the man, he has learned to fear his power, both physical and legal. It wouldn’t look good if he went around punching an Admiral in his own office during a terrorism investigation involving his commanding officer.

He knows he and Anakin are suspected criminals just as much as she is. He doesn’t know what to think, but he knows one thing, Ahsoka would never kill innocents.

Never troopers, never.

“No Admiral, it is not. When should I meet you?” Rex asks emotionless as he forces his body to not shake off that hand that seems to sear through his armour and into his skin. Branding him as property only to be used. His touch is not one of friendship or one between equals, it is a touch of possession.

“Come to my office at 21 hours tomorrow night, and Captain. Come alone. I’m sure you know what would happen if our little arrangement were to come to light.” Tarkin say smoothly, Rex doesn’t answer for several heartbeats and it is not the response the Admiral apparently wanted with the way the older man grabs his face with a painful grip.

“Don’t you, CT-7567.” He says warningly and Rex closes his eyes and nods his head.

“I want you to say it or else I’ll truly start believing that you and your brothers are just incredibly expensive warm holes.” He says snidely and he wants to scream, whether for help or to shout the man’s true characters to the heavens, he doesn’t know.

“Yes, Admiral Tarkin, I understand that if I would tell anyone I would be immediately decommissioned and sent to Kamino for reconditioning.” Rex says like a good little soldier.

“Yes, quite the unfortunate ending if you believe the rumours, you’re one of the best that Kamino has pumped out, it would be a shame to lose your marvelous skill set.” He says, never losing the cold calculating look in his eyes or the cruel downturn of his mouth.

“Your body does seem to have other uses but if I wanted a whore, I would get myself a premium cunt from one of the more opulent brothels at my disposal.” He continues and Rex doesn’t open his eyes to give the man the pleasure to see the pain in in them.

He isn’t wrong.

He has whored himself out to the people who have paid thousands for his creation. He is only repaying the massive debt that is due with the only thing he has.

The Admiral waves him off with a smack to his rear and he has to bite his tongue to keep the yelp lodged in his throat. His muscles protest awfully with every single step he takes, he won’t lie to himself, it hurts.

Existing hurts, things just kept getting worse and worse.

He’s glad his time with Tarkin wasn’t his first orbital drop, he‘s familiar with how to use his own cock and where he can put it but Tarkin barely used lube and was none too gentle with him.

He needs to shower, he needs to claw his skin off where he feels the bruising and the phantom hands that chill his skin.

The Coruscant Guard showers are closest but that’s enemy territory, it shouldn’t be, but it is. He doesn’t even recognize Fox anymore, the moment he ordered his men to kill Ahsoka, gone was the man Rex shared any sense of belonging with, their brotherhood was gone. Splashed onto the ground like the bolts Ahsoka had to deflect, the bolts that were meant to kill her.

He almost came to blows with the red painted Commander, it was only Wolffe’s curt warning through a private channel that stayed his hand.

If only it had been that easy to convince Tarkin to spare Ahsoka, but Rex didn’t hate Fox as much as Tarkin hates the Jedi. At the end of the day while the chasm between him and his brother may be uncrossable, he doesn’t hate his brother, he can’t. He is the only thing Rex has, he doesn’t have his own body anymore, it’s dirty, tainted, but his brothers will never know his truth, they will never be sullied by his filth.

He may not be able to protect Ahsoka but he can protect them from the harsh truths of the men that own them until the next day and the next, until their brains are blown out by a blood red bolt on another nameless battlefield or until they’re consumed by the flames that haunt his dreams at night.

He can’t stand his own skin any longer and he growls to himself, it was late when he slipped out of Tarkin’s office. If it was well into the night cycle then, then it should be encroaching on godawful hours at this point with the time he has taken to drag his heels through the steel grey halls of the Republic Intelligence headquarters.

He can still smell the expensive cologne Tarkin wears on him, feel how his sweat is still caked to his back, can feel the bite marks along his neck. The ration bar he had choked down two hours ago comes up with a wave of bile with a vengeance and he has to slap his hand over his mouth and brace the other against the wall as he takes several shuddering breaths.

A few loose tears slide down the high plains of his cheeks, but they go ignored.

Shower he needs to shower.

If someone see him, if a trooper from the guard catches him with his blacks off, little gods forbid if Fox sees him in his current state, he’ll know immediately. He works as the Marshal Commander on Coruscant he’ll know what a…what a …person with injuries will look like.

The GAR is the worst gossip grapevine, he knows the Coruscant Guard receive some of the vilest abuse from the civilian population. He’s faced it himself but he can threaten to put a bolt in someone’s head and disappear the next hour for months and months. The guards cannot, they take the abuse since the entire army’s and every single clone’s reputation balances on their poor overworked shoulders.

His heart aches for his brothers, it does. It wails out in pain for himself, for Ahsoka, for all the lives lost that seem to cry out for him in the empty hallway.

The showers are blessedly empty by some miracle, but he isn’t going to hang around anytime soon and find out who is coming off their late-night shift next, desperate for a shower after mucking around in the lower levels.

His armour comes off quick and easy, like it did before. Maybe Tarkin is right and he is nothing but a pre-paid whore.

_No._

He doesn’t think of the man, not now, not ever. Shower and go, go back to the 501st barracks to where it’s safe.

_Nothing will ever be safe again, he’ll always be able to reach you, no matter how far your run._

His hands tremble as he desperately tries to yank his stale blacks off so he can toss himself under the spray that is currently filling the shower room with heavy steam.

He doesn’t bother folding up his blacks as he chucks the soiled fabric on the sopping floor, there’s a neatly folded pile of clean under suits by the door and well, if they notice a pair missing tomorrow, then he was never here.

The water burns deliciously against his skin and his body almost relaxes under the spray, almost. The tenderness of his raw skin battered by red hot water is the punishment his body deserves after it had betrayed him so thoroughly.

He scrapes his nails over his skin until they almost break the skin, it feels good, feels good to punish himself, for not being good enough. He wasn’t good enough on Umbara or Zygerria and now he has failed again.

Failing three jedi and hundreds of men doesn’t exactly give him a good track record.

His breath shudders shallowly in and out of his chest, the oxygen struggling to get a grip in his lungs as he exhales too roughly and too early as the water pounds down on him.

_Master your self cadet, there is no excuse for your failure, soldier on, be better, be stronger._

Dred Priest’s words ring out in his head and the harshness of his memory almost snaps him to attention and allows him to gulp down another shuddering inhale, this time the air actually gets to his brain.

The bastard is a much-wanted distraction, Rex still hopes he’s dead but the memory of the trainer keeps his brain away from the being bent over a desk to try and save Ahsoka’s life.

He numbly slams the shower off and stumbles over to the blacks, the thick material is a nightmare to get on over his wet skin but he manages, barely. Just like everything else he’s done tonight.

He will survive, barely, but he will.

He stalks out of the showers smelling like a fresh prim rose but feeling more like a stomped on weed. He shoves out of the head quarters past some wide eyed shinies stuck with an awful graveyard shift. He probably jostles them too roughly and he knows they’ll tell Fox that he was on premise tonight.

Even if he doesn’t tell anyone, they’ll find out, they’ll come with their big flashlights of self righteousness to shine the light on the subject that he knows he is desperately trying to avoid. That he is trying to keep nameless, but they’ll figure it out soon enough, soon enough everything will fall apart and no matter what he does he will continue to fail everyone around him even when he gives everything he has.

There is no other way of life for him.


	2. Just Because They're Dead Doesn't Mean That They Can't Haunt You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad you guys are liking it so far!
> 
> A few warning for this chapter: Night Terrors, victim blaming, implied rape/non-con, dehumanization and a bit of violence

It’s dark, completely pitch black and he fumbles around in the dark trying to flip the night vision goggles down over his visor, but his hand only slaps his face clumsily. The impact of skin on skin stings sharp enough to shake the rest of the grogginess out of his sleep addled mind.

 _Why is he awake? Had something woken him?_ When had he fallen asleep?

Something feels wrong, his stomach and heart feel like they’ve switched places in his body. His eyes still haven’t adjusted to the darkness of his surroundings. He knows his room on Coruscant isn’t this dark even when he shutters the window, it’s not the low light environment of the Resolute or even the darkness of a night out in the open.

Something else is wrong.

The bed is to big, too luxurious to be the standard Republic issue single bunk that he barely fits on, this isn’t his room, the unnerving silence seems to mock him.

Blindly he tries to lever himself off the bed as his body bemoans him moving with a spiteful wave of discomfort, it tells him that he is too old to continue fighting. That he has broken the last legs he had been standing on.

 **“Captain, leaving so soon?”** A voice asks him as a cold hand trails up his spine, nails dig harshly into his bare skin and he has to force himself to keep his eyes forward. Looking back made whatever was happening to him real.

A hand clamps around his wrist like an iron manacle keeping him in place.

Slowly the blackness unfolds, morphing into the perpetually shadowy forest of Umbara but it’s hot, hot like how Kadavo had been, unbearable and inescapable as it singes his skin. He can hear the distant cries of his brother’s in pain, crying out as they’re crushed under several tons of metal or shredded into bits, they mix with the sobs and moans of the colonists who beg for mercy.

Defiantly, he tries to rip his hand away, to jump out of the bed but he can’t seem to get a grip on the slick silk sheets. The grip slowly turning his hand purple grinds his bones together as it squeezes harder.

“You take me so well, I wonder if you should be used for a much more pleasurable purpose from now on.” The hand yanks him back with an otherworldly strength so that his chest is pressed to the bed, he growls but the sound is muffled when a larger four fingered hand shoves his head down.

Tarkin is human, he has five fingers.

“Be quiet skug, a lab rat like yourself should know when to take what he is being graciously given **. You agreed to this.** ” The voices meld together but he knows them painfully well. _They_ couldn’t be here, he killed one himself and facilitated the death of the other like the killer he is.

He can feel the Zygerrian’s claws dig into him, feel his greasy fur trail along his shoulders as the meaty four fingered hand grinds his face viciously into the sheets, making it harder and harder to breathe. It slowly suffocates him while deathly cold hands travel down his body to hold his hips in a bruising grip. They yank his lower half upwards leaving him exposed and vulnerable and with no leverage to roll away.

He shouts into the blankets as he fights to buck them off, to get away.

“Don’t fight Rex, you weren’t strong enough to save us, why do you think you can save yourself?” Ahsoka says as she leans over the bed, the hand holding his head yanks him back so harshly it feels like his neck may break at any second. She stands just out of reach looking down at him with glassy dead eyes, a smoking hole in the center of her forehead.

“What more can I do? Tell me!” Rex shouts before he gasps in pain, the bed moves like the desk did.

“Nothing and everything but it is already too late, every single decision you have made has brought you here. I hope you can live with your failure.” Dogma says from the other side of the bed, surrounded by other dead-eyed brothers who stare at him with milky white eyes.

“I can do better!” Rex wheezes, tears leak out of his eyes to trail down his face as Ahsoka and his brothers retreat into the murky forest, they don’t even spare him a backwards glance.

“Don’t leave me here!” He wails but his voice is caught on a gasp as a violently green lightsaber pierces through his heart and slashes into the bed. He can do nothing but stare numbly at it, hands manipulate and hold his body down as the bed rocks endlessly back and forth.

He tries begging for him to stop, to let him die but his voice is soundless in the air, leaving him completely alone.

An incessant beeping rises and pierces through the darkness, it’s unrelenting and blaring in it’s need to be tended too.

It screams at him to wake up. _Wake up!_

* * *

He jerks from the nightmare sweaty and tangled in his sheets. His chest still burns where the lightsaber pierced through it and he fumbles too touch his skin, to make sure that he doesn’t have the telltale circular burn wound.

It brings him only a minor measure of relief to find himself uninjured when the rest of his body aches something fierce, it all hadn’t just been an amalgamation of his terrors, not everything in the terror had been fictional. He jumps out of the bed to scramble for his communicator, by the frequency of the beeps and volume it’s been going off for a while.

His stomach drops when an irate looking Anakin pops up.

“Rex, where are you? No one’s been able to contact you for hours and they’ve put a lockdown order on the 501st you were supposed to come report to me after meeting Tarkin, where have you been..?....Have you been sleeping?!” Anakin says enraged and Rex tries to snap to attention the best he can as his stomach plummets through the floor.

He was supposed to report back to the Jedi after meeting with Tarkin, what happened? Why hadn’t he reported back, he doesn’t remember. He barely remembers when he had fallen asleep, the blue grainy image of the man looks half mad with rage and exhaustion, his expression darkens as Rex scrambles for some kind of answer. Some kind of excuse to explain the fact that he had fallen asleep the moment he entered his room, when he only meant to grab a new pack of ammo and get rid of any other evidence that would broadcast what had happened between the Admiral and him.

_Quickly, think of something!_

“Uh, General Skywalker sir, the meeting between the Admiral and I went longer than suspected, he had me review the history between the 501st troopers and the Commander to see if the battalion could be indicted in the bombing which is probably the cause of the lockdown.” He stutters hurriedly and he knows the man suspects that he is lying through his teeth, but he blessedly doesn’t say anything more to question Rex’s actions or whereabouts.

“Did you manage to learn anything from the meeting?” Anakin says brusquely and Rex subtly starts to strap is amour on over his foul-smelling blacks. If he knows anything about the man, which he does, keeping him waiting when he’s already in a bad mood didn’t bode well their teamwork when they have to scour the underworld together for the next several hours.

His bad mood is like sandpaper along his exposed nerves.

The entire situation has brought something frightening in that man to the surface. Rex has known Anakin for a long time, he knows the man has a darkness in him that runs parsecs deep, but his loyalty to the Jedi has helped him maintain his control, for the most part. But now it seems that as his faith in the Order has become unsteady and drenched deeply in mistrust and now he isn’t making the same effort to hold back the darkness.

With how the man is now, Rex isn’t going to push him, the anger will pass, it always seems to once the stressors or conflict have been relieved, but he has a feeling that it will linger this time.

He knows the anger isn’t directed him but he still cringes away, the anger and pain from his nightmare still cling to him like a oily slime that he can’t seem to get rid of no matter how hard he tries to shake. He has no excuse for his behaviour, Ahsoka is out there being hunted by his brothers and yet she isn’t falling apart at the seams like he is.

He is failing her again, if he can’t pull himself together, she will end up like the ghost in his dream, he can’t let that happen. The world has turned their backs on the young girl, but he would be there for her until the very end, no matter what he has to sacrifice, _continue to sacrifice_.

“It seems that Tarkin fully believes that Commander Tano is guilty and will pursue a guilty verdict in his persecution of her.” He hadn’t said that out loud but the way he had spoken about the young Togruta it didn’t require a genius to find out what his plans are. He doesn’t plan on having a fair trial with her, not in this life.

Was it a disdain for Jedi that powered his motivation or was it something much deeper that he has been blind too? The Republic is filled with corrupt, power-hungry officers that much is not shocking news, there was nothing new about Tarkin’s breed, but to go so viciously after a child is another level of abhorrent than accepting a bribe under the table.

“He’s already decided then.” Anakin growls. “We have to get to her before does, meet me at the Temple and don’t delay, we have already lost enough time.” He says tersely before he cuts the connection.

Rex runs about the room slapping the last plates of armour onto his body before checking the ammo on his pistols before he runs out of the barracks to hop on his parked swoop bike.

He ignores how being near the man or his brother chills him with an encroaching dread.

* * *

Anger sets his teeth on edge, it doesn’t feel right to be angry at Ahsoka but of all people she could work with, out of trillions of people on Coruscant, Ahsoka had chosen _her_. He can feel that Wolffe radiates an all-encompassing rage, his orders barked at the red painted guard are curt and sharp, they know better to question his change of attitude or the sudden change in his tone.

Wolffe's anger feeds into his own, he is one with his brothers in their single-minded hatred of the brother-killer.

Seeing the assassin again brings him back to Teth where Anakin and Ahsoka had still been sloppy and immature leaders, treating their life or death situation like it was some game. He had been too disciplined, too brainwashed to rage at them for their failings, too caught up in his own.

He had stood at attention as they processed what the true price for their behaviour had been, with only six men out of entire battalion left she had started on her path to become a true leader, she learned what the price of war truly entailed while Skywalker used this failing to become better like he had a personal vendetta against himself. The first of the many shifts that the three of them had gone through that has landed them right in this exact moment. With Rex standing next to Wolffe as he points his DC-17s at a white skinned woman smirking over Ahsoka’s shoulder. They’ve finally cornered them in a lower level alley after hours of searching and running.

The woman looks gleeful at the thought of tearing into clones and he can see how her hand twitches, as if itching to ignite her red blades and slice into their flesh. They would be helpless to stop her. He’s painfully aware of how well a clone stands up to the blade of a lightsaber.

“Ahsoka, please don’t make this any harder than this has to be. We can help you, just like General Skywalker said.” Rex pleads but he sees the stubborn set of her jaw and knows her mind is already made up, she’s a kid who feels abandoned by the world.

A kid powered by betrayal isn’t going to trust any authority any time soon and that means him as well, he ignores how the thought stings.

 _After everything you’ve done for her._ Tarkin’s voice rings in his head.

She would never now, he’s not resting that knowledge on her shoulders, Ahsoka would never forgive herself if she knew.

“Rex, I can’t do that. I have to solve this on my own.” She protests, Ventress scowls and rolls her eyes behind her, the older woman is getting impatient.

“But you don’t have to do this alone, You know Anakin would never do anything to put you in harms way, I need you to trust me when I say that we can help you.” Rex pleads, he can feel the tension in the air as the Guards and Wolffe watch their soap opera unfold.

He doesn’t know how effective he is in convincing her to surrender, but even if Ahsoka runs she’ll at least know that he’s rooting for her.

She opens her mouth to say something before clicking her jaw shut stubbornly.

“By falling into bed with an Admiral? You seem like the type to try and fuck your way into good graces.” Ventress says bitingly and Rex feels himself go colder than Orto Plutonia, the breath shudders out of his chest in a silent exhale as he stays frozen in place.

Ahsoka rounds on the former Sith and barks some scathing response, but he doesn’t hear it through the ringing in his ears.

_Calm down, she’s just taunting you, she doesn’t know, she can’t know._

Just as things feel like they can’t get any worse a shiny grabs Ahsoka’s arm and she reacts on instinct, the kid didn’t even have a chance, even with his height and armour advantage. Ahsoka has been honed into a fierce warrior during her time on the front, she outranks him in years of battle experience. The moment she flips the kid over on his ass it starts an all-out brawl and the tableau careens into an unsalvageable situation so fast it’s hard to keep track of who goes down first.

He hears Ashoka snap at Ventress to not to hurt any of the men and to his surprise, she agrees begrudgingly. He dodges a guard thrown in his direction and he and Ahsoka stand frozen facing each other, stuck in a stalemate with their fists raised and he hates himself, he really hates himself for ever raising a fist at her.

“I don’t want to fight you Rex, but you have to let me go!” Ahsoka tell him and he sighs deeply.

“You know why I can’t do that, Ahsoka the longer you run the guiltier you’ll look, why won’t you let us help you?” He asks desperately.

He’s so damn fucking tired.

“You don’t understand, everyone at the Temple, my family believes I’m guilty without even hearing what I have to say. I’m a murderer to them, after everything I’ve done to commit myself to the Order, they’re willing to just throw it all away.” Ahsoka says frantically and he sighs, he can feel the stress coming off her in waves.

Hands that don’t exist wrap around his throat and he can see the panic in her eyes as she shouts something unintelligible to Ventress who has lifted him off the ground with her own power. He’s been here before, he knows how the icy hands of her force power feel as they crush his windpipe, he can barely squeezes air though the filters of his bucket.

“We need to go and we need to go now, are you coming with me and following this lead you have or are you turning yourself in because your pet clone said some nice words to you?” Ventress hisses.

While no longer Dooku’s apprentice it doesn’t sound like she sees them as people anymore than she did when she was cutting them down left and right.

Ahsoka hesitates as he takes reedy gasps of air through the force choke, his vision is starting to go grey around the edges and he knows he won’t be able to handle her strangling him much longer.

It wouldn’t be so bad if she killed him.

He welcomes death.

“Let’s follow that lead.” Ahsoka says softly and Ventress drops him like a sack of grain on the grimy pathway of the lower level. He sees the two women fade into the darkness of the alleyway and he really just hopes Ahsoka knows what she’s doing, her life is too precious to be gambled with.

He coughs and wheezes around the garrote that Ventress has left sown into his neck, his throat feels swollen and rough, with his Adam’s apple feeling crooked and wrong in his neck. He always forgets how awful the aftermath of a force choke is, he almost prefers the choking over the release.

“General Plo, we had the fugitive Ahsoka Tano, but she escaped with the assistance of Asajj Ventress.” Wolffe says into his commlink

_She’s not a fugitive, she’s a kid! A scared kid. You’re going to get her killed by some trigger-happy brother by talking like she’s some murderous criminal._

“Come on blondie, let’s get you to medical.” Wolffe says as he hauls Rex up by his bicep and while he wants to protest, to say that they should keep going after them, he knows the squeaks that will come out of his wounded throat wouldn’t be dignified for an ARC captain like himself. So, he resigns himself to a full body pout that he knows Wolffe will understand.

The gruff comfort Wolffe gives him makes him feel a little more normal, a little more like a brother than an object, even if they too, can never know. It feels like a personal betrayal to keep secrets from his brothers, but this isn’t the same as protecting Cut. This burden means certain death if it comes to light in front of the wrong people.

“We’ll get your wayward Commander back and have this whole mess cleaned up by the time the next sabacc tournament comes around.” Wolffe whispers to him before he barks to the rest of the troopers to get to their feet.

He doesn’t have a response for Wolffe to let him know that it won’t just end when Ahsoka is proven innocent, _he’ll_ always want more even when the mess had been resolved.

_Always._


	3. That Kind of Loyalty Will Hurt You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty dark so be warned. A few warnings: implied rape/non-con, victim blaming, corporal punishment, sexual coercion and dehumanization.

The muscle in his jaw clenches rhythmically as he grinds his teeth together, sitting in nothing but the bottom half of his blacks sets him on edge. He can feel every muscles fiber in his body urging him to shove past Wolffe and run out of the Republic Intelligence headquarters. The sterile lights make him feel flayed open and exposed, like if he stays under them for too long they’ll melt away his facade and everyone will know the truth.

“Listen I know you’re angry but pouting like a shiny scammed into buying the first round of drinks at 79s isn’t going to make whatever Corrie medic they have here let you go any faster. They’ll release you when they release you, so the least you can do is not give them a hard time when they’re only doing their jobs.” Wolffe says with his arms crossed over his chest as he leans against the wall in his exam room.

He's known Wolffe for a long time, since ARC training, even before that, he knows the man is too sharp to let anything slip past him. The longer he stays in the room the higher chance he would find out Rex’s dirty secret.

Did it really matter in the end? Sexual abuse and assault of clones is nothing new, the public had acted shocked when a few more violent cases of shinies being raped and then left to die in the lower levels popped up in the news but those cases stopped showing up even if the occurrences continued to rise. With more brothers coming off Kamino the more the civilians across the galaxy decreased their human identity, until it was equivalent to that of a blaster, what did it matter if you broke a blaster? They were disposable, to be used how people saw fit. It didn’t matter if you came across a clone with their armour ripped off and blacks around their ankles as someone used them however they liked, what were they going to do? Report it? There are no pathways to report crimes against clones unless they were murdered, then at most they would get a menial sentence for destroying Republic property.

Their existence is pathetic, so he stops caring. He could never truly tell them about Tarkin. If he did, he wouldn’t put it past the man to scoop each one of brothers and send them to Kamino with him to face the same fate.

He’s angry and tired and hurting.

The unfairness of the situation is mixing with his fear and shame to create an ugly self portrait that he can barely even acknowledge. A part of him is deeply disappointed in himself that only one man who barely sees battle can have him clawing at his skin until he tears himself apart, after all he’s been through, the disappointment is bitter.

But he doesn’t want to burden his brothers anymore than life already does, he’s always been the blonde little who couldn’t be a good little clone to save his life. He knows the nightmares of ‘what if’ and ‘I could have done something’ make sleep a horror so warped and terrifying it’s hard to bring the experience into words. When you wake up shaking and covered in sweat with only a ghost of a memory that rips away any ability to rest peacefully.

“I’m not pouting, I’m thinking, they’re different. I’m not Boba, I just have a lot on my mind. I’m sure you understand.” Rex replies and Wolffe sighs and pushes himself off the wall and walks over to plop himself on his bed, he barely supresses a flinch that slithers along his body.

“You have to admit this looks bad, but what’s going on with Ahsoka isn’t everything that’s got you twisted, there something else isn’t there?” Wolffe asks gruffly and Rex stays very still and very quiet for a long weighted-moment.

“What makes you think that?” Rex turns to look at his brother’s mismatched eyes.

“You have a hickey.” He asks darkly and Rex forces himself to not slap a hand over the incriminating mark.

“What I can’t get laid?” Rex asks standoffishly.

“I personally don’t have a stance in your sex life, my biggest concern is figuring out when and where you had the time to get such a fresh hickey since for the past 2 days we have been trying to catch up with Commander Tano, so what I want to know, is what you’re not telling me.” Wolffe says seriously.

Rex’s resolve cracks a little as he leans his head on Wolffe’s shoulder bell. No point in trying to deny it since his older brother had already figure it out.

“Rex, please, you can trust me. I need to know so I can protect you.” Wolffe says imploringly and Rex feel even guiltier for the lie he is about to tell.

“I don’t think you can protect me, not from this, not this time.” Rex says softly and he can feel Wolffe stiffen sharply.

Before he can say anything a Corrie medic comes bustling in, he’s in his soft shell uniform so Rex can see how overworked he looks, poor kid barely looks fresh off Kamino ad already has dep bags under his eyes. While Kix would fight him when he says he doesn’t hate the medbay, he doesn’t, he just prioritizes himself lower than the rest of his men, unless his injuries are life threatening he get’s treated last.

He's not going to get treated for a bruise as one of his men bleeds out on an operating table, _that will never happen._

Wolffe steps away as the medic starts examining him but he never lessens his intense stare off with the telling bruise on his neck and he curses his brother’s observation skills. Thankfully, the kid doesn’t comment on the black mark that looks odd beside the burst blood vessels of a force choke, force chokes don’t leave bruises, there is nothing physical to leave an impression behind.

He just dutifully wraps his neck in a bacta bandage, injects a hypo into his shoulder and tells him to try to avoid active combat until he can breathe without difficulty again. Then he leaves without a second glance back, Rex frowns at the door until he realizes the kid had been the one to collect the dead bodies of Fox’s troopers when Ahsoka had first dashed out of HQ.

He knows it’s no secret that he’s close with both his Jedi, they all think she’s a brother killer and him defending her has surely ruffled some feathers within the guard. Especially with how Skywalker had been acting like a bull in a china shop around them.

He knows the only reason the kid medic hadn’t but a scalpel through his throat is his loyalty to him as a brother, brothers don’t kill brothers.

Just as the night can’t get any worse, Tarkin walks into his medical exam room, looking stuffy and proper like he usually did, without a hair out of place. The sight of him sends his heart racing, he hyper focuses on keeping his hands still even as adrenaline makes his body tremble, he avoids the man’s icy stare at all costs.

He can feel Wolffe’s suspicion and distrust without even looking at his brother.

“Commander Wolffe, General Plo Koon has requested that you be sent back into the field, Padawan Tano has been spotted again near the warehouse district.” Tarkin says and Wolffe frowns in confusion but nods his head anyways before he slips his bucket on and hustles out of the door.

Rex doesn’t miss the concerned gaze he shoots Rex before he disappears leaving Rex alone in the room with the man, he traded a sexual favour for, he’s not going to say rapist _because he had said yes_.

“How are you feeling Captain?” Tarkin asks as he locks the exam room door, it makes his heart leap into his throat as he stares at the floor like it’s the most interesting thing in the world.

“I will recover Admiral.” He mumbles, the firm grip on his jaw that yanks his head up comes as a shock and Rex stares at him with wide brown eyes. 

He grips the frame of the bed to stop himself from slapping the man away, he had cornered him again in another situation where cannot lash out.

“When I speak to you, I expect a proper response, now tell me Captain is this the reason you decided not to show up in my office like I requested? I thought the life of the Commander meant more to you?” His words pour ice into his veins.

He had forgotten, too caught up in the confrontation with Ahsoka and his subsequent brush with Ventress’ force choke to remember that he had agreed to go to Tarkin’s office again. The man looks furious, as furious as he could while keeping his face completely neutral. Rex swallows several times, his neck stretches painfully, and he itches to yank his head free.

Tarkin will most definitely find a way to punish him.

“Sir, when we confronted Commander Tano she resisted turning herself in and the former Sith assassin Asajj Ventress proceeded to Force choke me so that she and Commander Tano could retreat, Commander Wolffe escorted me to the facility to be evaluated.” Rex says monotonously looking at a spot on the wall over Tarkin’s shoulder as he holds his jaw.

“Hmm Padawan Tano isn’t exactly proving her innocence if she allowed Ventress to choke you, as it seems she did nothing to prevent it and here I heard you two are very close. It seems maybe her friendship to has merely been a façade.” Tarkin says as he steps back to pace the room like they are having an actual meeting and the man isn’t holding him hostage.

“I don’t doubt Commander Tano’s loyalty, Ventress is a wanted war criminal, I doubt Commander could do little to stop her.” Rex protests and Tarkin hums noncommittedly.

“You seem to be steadfast in defending Padawan Tano while her actions prove that she is not the person you think she is.” Tarkin says as he runs a hand over the walls.

“I have said before that she has saved my life many times and I will continue to trust her, no matter her actions, I know the Commander that I have fought next to.” Rex says as he watches the man warily, feeling sick when the man slowly undoes his leather belt, caressing the material as he silently stares at it.

“As you have said that kind of loyalty will get you hurt Captain. Since you failed to follow my direct orders I am going to have to punish you, strip yourself of your pants and bend over the bed, do not keep me waiting Captain or I may change my mind on granting Padawan Tano mercy.” Tarkin says icily and the blood in his veins completely freezes, he has to swallow harshly to not throw up on the man’s boots.

This isn’t a normal disciplinary on his record, no, his would be strictly between them.

“Well Captain? Do no keep me waiting, my patience has been worn thin throughout the past several days.” Tarkin hisses as he crowds Rex against the bed before stepping away.

He shamefully and methodically strips himself of his bottom black, folding them neatly before placing them on the bed. He tries to stand as straight as he can his hands folded over his crotch even as shame and humiliation burn like a wildfire across his skin. It is nothing the man hasn’t already seen but it still shames him greatly to be reduced to such an object.

“Bend over and place your hands on the bed, I want you to count.” He can’t fight him, so he does what he is told, like a good little solider.

“The rooms here are soundproof, I just thought was an interesting design flaw.” Tarkin says before abruptly cracking his belt against his bare skin.

It hurts, the leather is harsh and unforgiving against his rear, he takes several gasps of air and bites on a whimper as Tarkin smooths a hand along the red-hot welt he has made on his skin.

“…One.” Rex whispers and Tarkin hums appreciatively as he leans back to hit him harder, the hit overlaps with the first one and a grunt of pain pushes past his gritted teeth.

“…Two.” The blows fall faster and harder and only when Tarkin is panting for breath and his skin feels raw and abused does it stop.

The Admiral runs his hands over his flaming skin, and he grips the bed tighter to stop himself from crawling away. He’s on the verge of tears, he can feel it. The belt had been stripped all self control from him as Tarkin didn’t seem to want to stop.

He wouldn’t cry in front of the man, he wouldn’t. It’s going to hurt to put his armour back and he doesn’t know how he’ll explain why he’s having a hard time keeping up with the Corrie patrols.

“Such a good boy for me, now on your back with your legs spread. I’m going to fuck you and you’re going to look at me the whole time.” Tarkin says as he strips off his uniform.

Later he’ll remember how it felt to have Tarkin’s teeth on his chest, his hands on his thighs and most hauntingly how his icy blue eyes as stared maliciously into his own pleading brown eyes before he had hid himself in the man’s chest, just hoping it would end soon.


	4. I Will Reap Hell for You Brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: More discussion of sexual assault and coercion, assassination, murder.

The thing is, Fox isn’t a workaholic. It just so happens that he works a lot.

He doesn’t enjoy sitting at his desk for hours and hours forging the Chancellor’s signature on documents that he conveniently forgets about hours later. Where black spots as blank as a newly reconditioned clone appear in his memory.

When they first started appearing, he had simply assumed that there was something wrong in his genetic code and that his brain is slowly devolving into mush. thing is, he isn’t so easily fooled or tricked into thinking the answer is so simple.

Alpha-17 had raised him better than that, to be better than a simple solider, that was until a rotary blade had sliced his feet clean off and bomb went off beside his head on Geonosis, then he had regarded himself as less of a solider. He was force to rebuild himself, adapt to apparently being assigned as a senator escort, even if now he knows that’s the farthest thing from the truth about the nitty gritty roles the guard fills.

He has been around long enough, survived the relentlessly cruel world of Coruscant long enough to know who really ran the Republic, what kept it afloat.

Corruption, and him curb stomping the Chancellor’s enemies that he can’t remember ever hearing of, apparently. His brothers would never know that he pulls himself back to reality in the depths of Coruscant with blood on his boots and looking down at the person he doesn’t remember killing dead at his feat. Barely recognizable with the way he had mindlessly beaten them to death.

He always throws up when he snaps out of whatever control he is under, he then throws up again when he reads the missing person report or the certificate of death. Thing is, the first time it happened he thought the fumes of Coruscant were finally getting to him and he had been tempted to turn himself in.

But he didn’t, he had just gone back to his office to pretend that he doesn’t have to pull someone’s hair out of ankle joint. However, once is an anomaly but twice is a pattern, and his black out assassinations did have a pattern.

Whoever is controlling him is either is to arrogant in their ability and comfortable in their anonymity or simply thinks he’s too stupid to figure out what’s happening.

A flesh droid wouldn’t comprehend the thinking of a nat-born, he falls easily into the roll of a droid which makes people sloppy with their illicit doings around him.

Which is why he knows what has been happening with the Captain, the little blonde mutie who couldn’t fall in line even if his life depended on it. He knows Tarkin has been raping the Captain under the ruse that he would lessen his fallen Jedi’s sentence if he would allow the Admiral play out every single sexual fantasy on him.

He grits his teeth, crushes the stylus in his hand until it snaps in half. He knows the shark-face bastard got off on people’s forced submission and desperation. He thinks he’s untouchable because he just happens to be the favourite Admiral of the month. The medical rooms are soundproof to anyone not wired into the system, the fool thought himself to be safe.

He was the Commander, a highly decorated officer, he had eyes and ear everywhere unbeknownst to any nat-born officer, his business was none of their own. They were not entitled to anything they didn’t have the right to know, he is the one running the planet behind the scenes so will do as he pleases.

He has the room recording and its transcript written on a heavily encrypted datapad, he had to practice a breathing technique he had learned on Kamino after hearing the Admiral’s snide voice. How he heard the muttered pleads to stop Rex had let slip in their botched Mandalorian.

He understand why Freezeframe had looked so shaken up during his report of his graveyard shift as he described seeing the Captain leave the HQ so early in the morning when he had no reason to be hanging around the barracks. He knows that night Skywalker and Rex had a meeting with the Admiral, but the Jedi had never shown.

He knows that if he were to report the Admiral now with the information he had, it wouldn’t be enough to have him removed from his position, the Chancellor would probably have his report scrapped the moment he reads the first line. As much as it angers him to let his brother’s torture continue, he needs more information, more evidence to save his brother. He doesn’t know what the fallen padawan has gotten herself tied up in, he doesn’t much care, all he knows is that his troopers and innocent civilians have been killed and she happens to be at every single scene red handed.

However, if his brother believes in his commander so much, maybe there’s more to the little Togruta than he thinks.

He needs more people on his side for his own investigation on Tarkin, Wolfe is an easy choice so is Cody when he comes back, Thire, Stone, Thorn the older commanders who have been around for much longer than anyone else has. Those who know.

“Commander!” Stormfront, another kid fresh off of Kamino bursts into his office without warning and he almost puts his thumb through the pad. If the kid didn’t look so spooked he would’ve barked about proper guard etiquette but as he stares at the kid’s wild brown eye and how he looks like he’s on the verge of tears.

Now, tube wet shinies often didn’t take well to the abuse thrown at them for the first few weeks they’re on Coruscant, but Stormfront only met the abuse with a stormy silence or a rolling laugh that often had civilians running for the hills. The kid seemed to love the fear and abuse, like he thrived off hatred. A real Jango, but now the kid looks like he had been threatened with reconditioning.

“Stormfront, what is it?” Fox says as he stands from his desk.

“There’s been an attack, I found a brother collapsed in the showers, I didn’t know what to do, he wouldn’t respond to anything I did when I tried to wake him up.” The kid babbles and he puts his hand up to stop him before he sends himself hurtling headfirst into a panic attack.

“Which showers kid?” He asks, waiting for him to catch his breath.

“Basement one’s sir, I know no one really uses them but I heard a commotion and when I went to check I saw the brother collapsed on the floor.” He explains, still looking shaky.

“Tell Gravedigger to prep a private room, I’ll bring the brother in, and Stormfront? Don’t tell anyone else about this, this stays in between us until we figure out what has happened, too much is going on right to have the men worried about someone attacking brothers inside the barracks.” Fox commands and Stormfront runs off as he locks his datapad in his desk.

He knows the unused showers that Stormfront is talking about, the worst showers in the entire HQ but also the perfect hiding place for people who wanted to remain unnoticed.

The gut churning nausea already tells him to know what to expect. He palms the door open and steps through the puddles on the tiled floor, he pulls his bucket off and places it by the door as he approaches the blonde thorn in his side.

“Captain?” He asks, his brother is curled in on himself, the water already having been turned off automatically leaving him shivering and naked on the floor.

“Rex, vod’ika, can you hear me?” He tries for a far more familiar approach. It gets the blonde brother the jerk and moan in pain.

He lifts his head and Fox sees it, the bruise across his cheek, the split lip. His eyes are unfocused and haunted as he blearily looks at him uncomprehending

“Fox, what are you doing here?” Rex mumbles before his head collapses back into his arms.

“I could ask you the same thing, shouldn’t you be back at your barracks tucking your blue babies in for the night?” Fox tries for humour, but it feels stiff and awkward on his tongue as he hovers a few feet away from his naked and shivering brother.

“You know….But I have to…protect her... you have to understand…she’s just a kid…she would never kill troopers…she never would!...he said... that if I did what he said he would….show her mercy.” His brother says between violent shivers as he babbles feverishly.

“Shhhh hey vod’ika you don’t have to explain yourself to me, I want to help.” Fox says soothingly.

“I thought you hated me…” Rex whimpers and his heart breaks a little.

“I will never hate you vod’ika, you just drive me crazy with your damn stunts. Now c’mon I’m taking you to the medbay.” Fox says and he sees Rex stiffen and falter in his movements.

“No, no medic, they can’t know, no one can know.” He whimpers as he curls back in on himself.

“Hey, don’t worry, I’ll take care of you, I always will.” Fox whispers and Rex sobs and throws himself into Fox’s chest. He lets his hands hover above Rex’s bare skin, usure if the Captain wants to be touched.

“Do you want me to touch you?” He asks and Rex sniffles and nods his head and he slowly wraps his arms around his shoulders and hauls him off the ground.

“I have a private room for you, Gravedigger will treat you in there.” Fox says he stands with Rex supported with his arm over his shoulders.

He will reap hell for his little brother, Rex has been nothing but dedicated to his brothers and the Republic, he has waded through mountains of shit that had no business being in his presence. He has to be patience, plan his steps carefully so when the time comes, he can tear the bigwigs down from their pedestals and not even the Chancellor could stop him. He will have his justice and they will fear him for it. He just hopes his brother can hold on for just a little longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> vod'ika = Little brother


	5. His Good Little Flesh Droids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW/CW: internalized victim blaming, panic attacks and mentions of sexual coercion.

_“Wolffe! Wait, I can explain!”_ He hears Ahsoka shout from around the corner, just out of reach as he hears the familiar sound of a stun ring being shot. Skywalker hears it as well if the way he flinches is anything to go by.

They burst around the endless rows of crates to see Wolffe rummaging through one of the open storage units as the guard circle around Ahsoka’s unconscious body. He tries his best not to be furious with his brother, he’s doing his job but the way she had pleaded for him to listen to her and the way he had callously ignored her, still rubs him the wrong way.

Ahsoka deserves to be treated like her life still matters, she wasn’t Bane or Aura who went around killing clones left and right, she is his Commander who has kept his heart beating through each battle. Treating her like a criminal that he knows deep in his core that she isn’t, makes him feel so sick he feels the ration bars he’s choked down churn upward, which he stubbornly swallows back down.

“Nanobots, the same kind found at the bombing site.” Wolffe says neutrally as he carries a canister over to Plo Koon to inspect.

Once Anakin lays eyes on the explosives, his face crumples, he doesn’t know which is more heartbreaking, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen the man so defeated. A wave of rage seems to crash over him as a few of the guards converge on her with a pair of handcuffs. He doesn’t have time to think about how it probably isn’t a good idea to touch the volatile man, but with the way he stalks towards the oblivious guards is all to reminiscent of how Krell stalked towards them. Like a barely chained beast just lusting to sink its claws into them and getting off from the fact that they’d be defenceless against a lightsaber through the chest.

He doesn’t think about he repercussions against himself, as he can see the guards dead on the floor, cut down with powerful blows by a mystic weapon that would never take any damage from slicing through his brothers. The scent of burnt flesh is so clear in his mind he almost wretches.

So, he grabs, probably a little too tightly, Anakin’s bicep and stops him midstride. His general rounds of him with a look he could call murderous on a good day, the air shudders out of his chest as they have a silent stare off.

He knows their silent standoff has made the factory temperature drop several degrees as the guards stop what they’re doing to look up from arresting Ahsoka. Wolffe stares at them with his hands resting on his pistols, at the ready to be fired at any moment.

Anakin continues to stare at him with an enraged expression as he looks down at Rex’s hand still wrapped firmly around his bicep. He doesn’t let go even when fear rages through his body, even as he feels his legs tremble. He shakes his head subtlety and just like the anger had never on Anakin’s face he slumps in on himself, all the anger is gone in an instant as he looks down. The room seems to breath a sigh of relief as Anakin falls back to Plo Koon’s side.

Rex softly shoves the guards away to finish securing Ahsoka’s handcuffs, while he hates himself for it performing the job, it puts a bit of space between him and Anakin. Wolffe comes to kneel next him as they heave her off the ground together.

The walk back to the transport is absolutely silent, quieter and colder than Orto Plutonia before the Talz attacked them. He still feels on edge even as the cool Coruscant breeze rustles his buzzed sweaty hair. He had taken his bucket off, the beloved helmet feeling more like a force choke than it’s usual protective shield.

He rubs his damp face roughly with his free hand and Wolffe shoots him a layered look having taken his own helmet off, his cybernetic feel more piercing than usual. He shrugs his shoulders as a non-answer, the Jedi converge on the hologram call to tell the Council that they have Ahsoka in their custody.

He knows that already too many people suspect something, there is no hope in shaking Fox off his scent after he had seen his pitiful state in the showers two days ago. If Wolffe knows the full truth it would be only a matter of time before Cody would know. He knows for a fact that the good Marshal Commander act is partly a façade, he knows his brother can raise a crippling hell when he wants to and as a Marshal Commander a third of the army would follow him with a simple command.

Some days he thinks Jango gave Cody his specialized rank because he knew his clone would be a vindictive bastard when pushed enough, just like the rough draft was. Or maybe he put Cody in such a position with the last bit of humanity he had, because he knew Cody would protect them the best he could. Even being while being in the same melting pot that was Republic property next to his brothers and their blasters.

Cody could make a difference without even being considered sentient.

Guiltily, for the first time in his life he’s glad his brother was pulled away to handle another conflict. He knows he’ll hate himself with an acidic vengeance for his thoughts later but self hatred is an old friend at this point, ever since Krell, since Kadavo.

“Knight Skywalker and I will continue onwards to the Temple with Padawan Tano. Commander Wolffe and Captain Rex will give their reports to Commander Fox.” Plo Koon says.

“The rest of you will continue your search at the ports to investigate how the nanobots were brought to Coruscant or if they were made on the surface.” Anakin continues, he fixes him with an odd look that’s half regret and half distain and he wonders if their partnership will ever be the same again.

He makes a promise not to hold this against the man, he knows that he has always struggled with his emotions. His anger, his fear and possessiveness, he’s not a trained soldier like he is, an emotional outburst meant death on Kamino even as much as Alpha and Jango had tried to shield them from the nightmare inducing fate of being decommissioned.

As a slave he probably faced the same fate but he had been saved, given a chance to recreate himself. Yet something in him can’t seem to let go of the anger, some part of him is still that angry little slave boy mad at the universe and all the unfairness it has loaded onto his underserving mother.

But the next moment Wolffe pulls on his elbow and they hop off the transport and walk towards the unnerving entrance of the GAR headquarters. The compound is illuminated by the vertical floodlights that never fail to make the building seem as uninviting as possible. The headquarters have always made him uncomfortable, it’s grandeur is a show of their military might, not as a beacon of hope to people anymore.

They are far from the hope inducing sight and more of a precariously chained looming destruction, the Chancellor has done nothing to change their new destructive persona. He almost takes pride in the fact that his flesh droids invoke such fear in the rest of the galaxy.

They’re his good little boys.

“So, are you going to tell me why Skywalker looked like was going to rip into pieces or should I report him myself?” Wolffe says suddenly as they enter the gargantuan building.

“What are you talking about?” Rex says dumbly, knowing full well his brother wouldn’t fall for his act, but it had been worth a try.

“I’m not even going to tell you not to be dumb because your acting is so bad. You know I have my ways to get what I want, but I have enough respect for you as a brother to ask you personally.” Wolffe says indifferently.

Rex grits his teeth feeling like a tooka cornered by curious and grabby children.

“Listen, I don’t know what’s crawled up Skywalk’s ass and died, who says I’m not as angry as he is? Someone has obviously framed the Commander, yet everyone has jumped to the conclusion that she’s guilty. This is his student, someone who he’s taught and cared for the past 2 and a half years and he can’t do anything to save her this time. He isn’t Krell if that’s what your thinking, he’s anything but that bastard.” Rex says sticking his finger in Wolffe’s face.

He knows he can get written up for being aggressive with a superior officer, be shunned for getting aggressive with a brother. But the past week’s emotions are boiling over and igniting the powder keg that is his restraint.

“Good, I expect nothing less from the man, he has his head on right even after all the fawning Palpatine does, good to know it hasn’t gone to his head. But let’s talk about you.” Wolffe says grimly as he grabs Rex’s wayward finger and yanks him into a room he knows in his gut to be Fox’s office.

Wolffe drags him into a chair before throwing himself down in the other one while Fox waits patiently for them at his desk.

“Furry, Blondie about time you joined me.” Fox says neutrally as he sips what Rex can only believe to be caf, with maybe a little something extra mixed in.

“Well I dragged him as fast as I could Robocop, it’s not like I have an endless train of shinies who would bend over for me at a moment’s notice.” Wolffe says gruffly.

“No, you’ve just had a Jedi wrapped around your finger for the past two and a half years that would do anything for you.” Fox replies with a raised brow and Wolffe grunts.

“What do you two want? If you haven’t realized we don’t exactly have time to sit around and catchup” Rex says angrily and his older brothers sigh in unison.

“What is Tarkin holding over your head Rex?” Fox asks softly.

The question hits him and makes him feel like a grenade has gone off in his stomach, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in his body as the shock of the statement leaves him gaping and desperately trying to grasp for an excuse. Something to deflect the question that makes his heart pound so rapidly in his chest, it feels like the muscles would just collapse on itself.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Rex replies stonily, gripping the arm rests tightly.

“So, all the evidence I have on the Admiral offering Commander Tano leniency for sexual gain has all been fabricated?” Fox asks just as gently as before, like he isn’t ripping Rex open for the world to see.

“What I do is my own business.” Rex states breathing harshly.

“We’re not here to reprimand you brother, we’re on your side, we want to help you.” Wolffe says earnestly and his conviction almost makes him break out into wracking sobs, almost.

“Help me how? We all know how this goes, what if I say that I said yes to everything Admiral Tarkin asked me to do, if I get caught fucking a superior officer I will be immediately stripped of my rank and sent back to Kamino.” Rex ask angrily, how dare they stare at him with their judging eyes and say they want to help him, they’re disgusted with him, they should be.

No one can help him, he’s already closed the coffin on his own grave.

“Then why do the recordings that I have on file of your medical exam room hear you pleading for him to stop? What of the injuries that Gravedigger reported on his examination after I found you huddled in my barrack showers?” Fox asks and he almost slugs his brother across his face, a strong hand on his thigh is the only thing that keeps in his seat.

“What do you want me to say? Congratulations! You found out the Captain of the 501st has whored himself out to try and save his commanding officer, he let himself be used?!” Rex shouts, hyperventilating now as he falls to his knees after jumping out of his chair.

The room spins on different revolving axes as his lungs refuse to fill with air, he can see flashes of grey, white and red but they are swallowed in the spinning darkness of the room

“Breathe little brother, in and out, just like that...” He hears Wolffe says as a hand on his back keeps him grounded in reality as he pulls himself out of his panic.

“I’ve fucked up so badly, I’ve let him in and he’s never going to leave, he’ll always find away to get to me, he’ll find more reasons, I know it! He won’t even keep his promise to spare Ahsoka!” Rex whimpers as he curls further into Wolffe’s embrace.

“We will find away to make him regret ever putting his hands on you, I will burn Coruscant if I have to.” Fox swears and Rex looks up into his face with his watery vision and for the first time in a week he allows himself to think that he isn’t completely and utterly hopeless.

He will always have his brothers.


	6. Who Killed Captain Rex?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, y'all I was ready to post this last week but then my doc disappeared into the void and I had to re-write this entire chapter, I swear I was gonna shit myself out of anger. Anyway, I kinda like this version better.
> 
> TW/CW: Usual warning, this chapter is a little milder, discussion of abuse of power and sexual assault amd off screen drugging and kidnapping.

“Commander Wolffe! Have you seen my Captain? He’s not receiving my calls and I have urgent information I need to pass along to him.” Skywalker says as he runs up to him looking near catatonic with panic.

Wolffe tries not to frown at the man as he tries to reconciliate the strong emotion he has now with the fact that the man looked near ready to tear Rex into shreds for simply touching him. His brother had always said that the man’s emotions made him a walking-talking contradiction, a possessive one at that as well. _‘My Captain’_ certainly confirmed his rumoured possessive streak for Wolffe, but being possessive is better than being indifferent, so Wolffe just files the information away for a later time.

“No sir, the Captain and I parted ways after delivering our reports to Commander Fox, he said he was headed to the 501st barracks to brief his men since they’re still under lockdown.” Wolffe replies neutrally, hiding the fact that he’s freezing in his armour with the cold dread that has slithered up his spine.

The cold dread knowing that the unknown enemy inches ever closer with its fangs bared. It brings him back that damned escape pod, in nothing but his dress greys with the only lighting being that awful blood red gas giant to light the claustrophobic environment, he knew at the time that it was only an especially nice coffin for the four of them. The dread of the waiting almost drove him mad as they waited and waited and waited, for the pod hunter for it to emerge from the shadows and reveal itself to be the nightmare they had imagined it to be.

This time he doesn’t need his imagination to run rampant, he already knows who the hunter in the shadows is.

“Captain Rex come in please…. Rex, do you copy?” Silence meets Wolffe and Skywalker only seem to get more agitated with the ensuing silence.

“If you can get a hold of him, tell him to meet me at the Temple, we still have work to do to help Ahsoka’s case.” He growls before stalking off and tugging his hood over his head, making his seem more like a reaper of death than a keeper of the peace. Once he disappears around the corner and out of hearing range, he plugs in a different frequency into his comm-pad.

“Fox, we have a problem.” He says, not even after a second of waiting he gets a reply.

“When do we not have problems.” Is the dry as Tatooine reply.

“Rex is missing, Skywalker nor I can get a hold of him, I don’t like it.” Wolffe replies and he can hear Fox swear on the other end.

“How long ago did you see him last?” Fox questions sharply and he has to bite his lip from snapping back, attacking Fox wouldn’t do them any good.

“About 18 hundred hours last night after we left your office.” Wolffe says and he knows it sounds bad, it was encroaching on mid-morning already, which means Rex has been out of sight for about 15 standard hours.

“Tarkin’s office is on the 6th floor, meet me there.” Fox says curtly before cutting the line off.

Wolffe takes a moment to breathe through the crushing anxiety that has made itself a home next o his heart. He goes through the steps Plo had shown him to help when his emotions become too much to bear. He imagines the anxiety bleeding out of his body and wisping away into thin air, after several breaths his chest doesn’t feel so tight, so crushing. He finds the nearest staircase and sprints up 5 flights of stairs like Jango is shooting at his heels.

He reaches Tarkin’s office just as Fox rounds the corner wearing the same grim expression he knows must be tattooed on his face.

“Skywalks looks absolutely murderous, more than usual.” Wolffe mentions.

“I think he’s going after Ventress, she is still technically a wanted war criminal but whatever he does is his own business as long as he doesn’t leave a pile of bodies for me to clean up, I really don’t care what he does.” Fox hums as he kneels to inspect the panel for the office door.

“Does this count as breaking in and entering?” Wolffe asks as Fox hacks the lock-pad.

“Not when it’s my investigation it doesn’t, Tarkin is away at a function anyway for other big wig officers and senators, he’s been gone since last night and won’t be back any time soon.” Fox replies, Wolffe frowns, is Tarkin a fool?

“What find of lead investigator goes to a party in the middle of terrorist investigation?” Wolffe asks and Fox cracks open the lock on the door, and it slides open obediently.

“Tarkin is nothing but a figure head meant to appease the people and to reassure them the scary space wizards are under control, he’s Palpatine’s dangerous lap dog and he’s not in this position to do any good, he’s just looking for his next promotion. He’d probably pin the blame on Windu or Yoda if he could.” Fox replies as they slip into the office.

“So, a corrupt rapist and xenophobe.” Wolffe mutters. “What should we be looking for?” He adds.

“We’re most distinguishable when armoured up, if he dragged Rex out wearing his white and blue people would start asking questions, even more so since blondie has modified his. Look for any of his amour.” Fox replies as he rattles draws on the lone desk in the office.

Turning to a closet he shuffles through and endless line of jackets made from only the finest materials. He knows at least half the closet would be enough to fund a cadet for the entire 10 years of growth, he shuffles through some more, then he comes across it.

A kama, a blue lined kama. It’s undeniable in the texture and weight, it couldn’t belong to anyone else, no other battalion wore the same shade of royal blue that Rex had picked out. He grits his teeth and spins to hold up the evidence like it is the Chancellor’s head.

Before he can say anything Fox’s comm goes off and he scowls before answering it.

“Go for Fox, Gravedigger this better be good, I’m busy.” Fox replies.

“Turn on the news you bastard, channel 680.” Gravedigger says before cutting the connection. Wolffe flicks the screen on to the channel, he sees a violet skinned Twi’lek in a pantsuit holding microphone looking like she’s standing front of a crime scene.

 _“Just moments ago, the Senate district had been shaken by the shocking scene that has unraveled. The quiet neighbourhood which never sees any crime has been shocked when an anonymous caller reported a body having been dumped on the estate of Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin. Thankfully, the victim is alive but in critical condition and currently unresponsive, he is en route to the Coruscant Senate hospital now. From what we know now the victim is the clone captain who leads the 501 st legion with Jedi General Anakin Skywalker. We will update you as soon as we know more about this development.”_ She reports before moving onto to interview braindead bigwigs.

Wolffe shuts the news off and with a trembling hand he put the remote down on the desk, he knows property damage isn’t going to convince people that they need to send Tarkin to hell.

“Come on, it’s time we let the Jedi in on our investigation.” Fox says icily as he stomps out of the office, Wolffe sighs before he follows, leaving the wretched office behind them.

* * *

“You know, I’m a simple man. I put my briefs on one ball at a time, after a long and tedious relief mission I would like to come back to this hellhole of a planet for a simple life of cheap beer and maybe 8 hours of sleep per rotation. What I would like to know is why Rex has been drugged and kidnapped and whose head I should put on the chopping block?” Cody says as he looks in between Fox and Wolffe as he holds Rex’s hand in his, his skin is so cold, and the colour is all wrong.

His brother is dying from whatever he has been drugged with and he doesn’t even know where to start to save his brother. The only thing keeping him alive are the various beeping machines around him, but he knows they won’t be for long.

“Around 6 rotations ago Admiral Tarkin began the rape and sexual coercion of Rex under the guise of being lenient towards Ahsoka in her participation of the bombing of the Jedi Temple. Rex confirmed it himself when we confronted him with evidence collected, it points to him being forced or coerced in every instance of sexual contact.” Fox replies stone faced; Cody doesn’t know if it’s impassive face or the robotic tone but the next thing he knows is that he’s getting in the face of his batchmate.

“How about you say that in human terms you fucking droid, this is our brother you’re talking about.” Cody shouts but the other Commander meets him step for step as they snarl at each other.

Wolffe shoves them apart and he has to stumble back a few steps to stay standing.

“That’s enough of that pissing contest, tearing each other’s throats out isn’t going to help or save Rex, we’re on a time limit now and Tarkin isn’t going to go quietly when it comes to admitting to drugging Rex, if we don’t act fast we won’t know what is killing him. Now let’s go, the Jedi have already collected in an office down the hall, it’s best that we don’t keep them waiting.” Wolffe barks at them, he’s glad they’re in a private room. If they were anywhere else, they would’ve been all thrown out with a strict ban for the show they just put on.

“Fine, lead the way.” Cody huffs.

The walk is dead silent, no one speaks in fear of shattering the very fragile peace between them. When they step in, he’s shocked at the crowd they’ve attracted, but he also considers the fact that Rex is a lot more influential than his brother says he is.

Skywalker looks downright murderous and he isn’t quite sure who or what the anger is directed at, Windu has the same neutral mask tinged with disapproval that he thinks is just his resting his face at this point. Or whenever he’s in the presence of Skywalker which is understandable, the man is a handful. However, he knows the dower expression isn’t directed at any of them or has anything to say about the man’s personality, he’s seen the Jedi smile plenty of times, it is a nice smile. Plo Koon looked, well as he always looked, expressionless and infinitely put together.

He sees out of the corner of his eye how Obi-Wan tugs at his beard, it takes all his self restraint to not walk over an slap the man’s hand away to stop the nervous habit he had developed after Satine had been murdered.

His former student on the other hand has no such restraint.

“What has happened to my Captain?” Skywalker hisses and he praise Fox for apparently having balls of steel as he doesn’t even flinch away from Skywalker’s rage.

He gives the Jedi the same talk he gave Cody about ten minutes earlier, to their abject horror.

“Hm, this definitely complicates things.” Mace says. Which is apparently the wrong thing to say as it seemingly ignites the match to Anakin’s powder keg of emotional control and the man leaps from his chair, sending it clattering to the ground.

“Can you please explain to me how Rex being raped only complicates things, because I’m a little lost.” He seethes.

_“Anakin!” “Skywalker!”_

The tension is shattered when Fox slams his bucket down on the desk, it rattles picture frames and knick-knacks a like, but it also drags all the attention on him. He can see Obi-Wan and Anakin pale slightly at the sight of Fox’s scarred visage and partially missing ear and he doesn’t blame their momentary shock, Fox never takes his bucket off.

“Skywalker, I understand you are angry, I do. When I figured out that my little brother was being raped by superior officer I wanted to put enough bolts into Tarkin so that he was more hole than man but lashing out won’t help Rex, we are running out of time and we cannot fight within each other, sir.” Fox hisses, Skywalker’s rage isn’t remotely diminished by the ‘sir’ tacked on at the end of Fox’s speech.

“General Windu, what did you mean when you said the current revelations complicated things?” Cody asks, desperate for the conversation to go back on track, after Skywalker’s rage derailed it so thoroughly.

“Early Tarkin had purposed expelling Padawan Tano from the order to ensure a non-biased investigation, however it now shows that Tarkin is incapable of demonstrating a non-biased investigation as he has solicited a GAR officer for sexual favours. With this evidence the Order and our allies in the Senate can push for Ahsoka Tano to receive a proper investigation and for Tarkin to be prosecuted for his crimes.” Windu says, which logically makes sense, but he’s missing one vital factor.

“The issue is having the charges even stick or survive through a trial.” Wolffe mutters.

“What do you mean Commander?” Obi-Wan ask confusedly.

His poor General, he knows the reality of his men’s situation gets lost as they gallivant from one damsel in distress to another, it’s easy to think of the clones as men when he sees that they are day in and day out.

“General, unfortunately under the Republic law the clones are still considered non-sentient property, many people will equate Rex’s assault to Tarkin sticking his dick in a droid or blaster, scandalous and crude but nothing abhorrent. The most Tarkin could possibly be charged with is damaging Republic property.” Cody says tightly.

“Damaging….Not if I have anything to say about that!” Anakin shouts as he jumps back to his feet and runs out the door without another word.

Obi-Wan sighs and rubs his face roughly. “I’ll go make sure he doesn’t stir up too much trouble.” He adds tiredly.

“Commanders, collect as much information as possible that you haven’t already, Master Windu and I will escort Tarkin for questioning personally if we have to.” Plo Koon rumbles and he straightens his posture.

“Of course, General, we appreciate your help in this, you have out thanks.” Wolffe replies.

“Don’t thank us yest, it is our own failing that you have remained property while in our care when we should’ve granted you citizenship the moment the first siege of Geonosis ended, this is the least we can do.” Plo adds before the last two Jedi head out to complete their own tasks.

He walks out soon after, he has more brooding and limp hand holding to do.


	7. To Save One Means to Sacrifice Another

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this house we love and respect Mace Windu, I really like how this turned out and it begins the second arc of this story!!!! Hold on to your titties.
> 
> a little CW: aftermath of sexual assault and discussion of discriminatory attacks and dehumanization of the clones.

“Sirs you should know before arriving at the Tarkin estate. I’ve gotten reports from Commander Stone and Thorn within the past 30 minutes regarding the current situation. Both tell me that Tarkin and his wife refuse to leave their estate to be questioned.” Fox tells them over the speaker in their speeder.

“Thank you, Commander Fox, keep us updated on Captain Rex’s condition, we will bring in the Admiral and his wife by mid-day.” Plo Koon says into the speeder’s communicator before the communication is cut.

Sirens ring out in a shrill pitch in the distance and the sound seems to claw and split the very air, it sets his teeth on edge. The way people treated clones had been startling clear with how Ponds had been executed and then dumped in deep space as if he was merely an object. He knows that his men do their best to hide the abuse they suffer, an injury from a discriminatory attack could be easily covered up as a past injury from the battlefield, but Mace has always felt the under current of anxiety when they make planet fall to Coruscant. How his men have never felt welcome on the planet to begin with, even if it is their sacrifice that keeps the civilians comfortable and away from the horrors of war.

He has seen how the guards flinch away from any sudden movements and the aftermath of brutal attacks that always leaves Neyo pacing the medbay with pinched and slightly murderous expression.

His men deserved much better than what they are given, he almost can’t stomach the thought of diving deep into the long list reports labeled ‘damaged property’. Murdered, raped, trafficked, all crimes committed against the clones make him dry heave. They were granted a slave army and were forbidden to acknowledge that to keep the precarious between the Jedi and the Senate they had to become complacent with becoming slave owners. The Senate will never acknowledge such a fact, they will never allow the Jedi to acknowledge it either as long as they have them under their control. It would shatter the righteous image they bend over backwards to maintain, even while corruption runs rampant among the 2000 seats.

As long as the Senate ruled over the Jedi, they would never have the ability to free the clones. If they tired, they would be considered traitors to the Republic and hunted down next to their men and punished for trying to usurp the Republic of its power.

He has toiled and wrestled with the same internal debate over and over and over again, late at night when the ability to sleep had been far from reach or nightmares had scared him away from trying to rest again. His men had come to him unexpectedly, he had never imagined that they would form such a comradery with him, after all the years that they had been fed the rhetoric that Jedi were unfeeling gods meant only to command them.

He had adored Ponds and missed him like he had lost a piece of himself, he trusts Neyo with his lineage down to the last scrap of Caleb’s robes, they were his second family. A place where he could feel like a man who was simply appreciated for himself away from the Jedi Temple. However, the Jedi Temple is also his home, has been for his entire life. Too much is at stake if the Jedi are declared traitors to the Republic, the younglings would not be spared. To help one family meant that he has to sacrifice another and the burden of that knowledge is crushing.

“You feel unbalanced my friend, I understand your anger, trust me I do, but you know better than anyone else that Tarkin and his entourage will not go quietly. Our harshest and most powerful critics will be watching our every move to create another reason to villainize us. We cannot help the galaxy if they fear us.” Plo Koon says.

“You know out of all people, I didn’t think that I would be the one to get this talk, I was sure that Skywalker would’ve been first.” Mace says with a self depreciating huff.

“Obi-Wan knows what is at stake, he out of all of has the best chance of settling young Skywalker and Ahsoka once the news is reveled to her. The two of them are highly attached to their captain and we must trust them to know what will help, instead of hurt him now.” Plo Koon replies.

“Indeed, I do think that Skywalker had thought the Captain to be invincible, I do believe the current situation has shaken him quiet a bit.” Mace says as he pulls the speeder to switch into another lane of traffic.

As they traveled further and further away from the core of the main hub of Coruscant and closer to the rich residential areas just north of the Jedi temple, they can see the large looming shapes of the estates owned by some of the most powerful people in the galaxy grow large as they travel closer. Their sizes large enough to hold hundreds of staff and servants. While Tarkin is powerful and well known within the GAR, in the grand scheme of the galaxy at war filled with trillions of lifeforms he is a mere spec. Mace knows a larger contributing factor as to why he lives among the obtrusively rich, is to due to his wife and marrying into her family.

“Impervious to a mortal man’s weaknesses, the Captain has dodge death plenty of times, it’s easy enough to believe that Skywalker had forgotten that he is human.” Plo adds before they fall into a tense silence.

His friend is a tightly contained shell of composure just as he always is, yet he can sense his unease and sickly turmoil, how his mind flashes back to his own men. He can see glimmers of Wolffe laying motionless on an a medical cot with thick bandages covering half of his face, glimpses of heartbreak as he watches through Plo’s eyes as men are sucked into the cold void of space while he’s helpless to do anything but watch and try not to suffocate.

“We must do something, this cannot continue after going on freely for so long, they deserve more than this, they deserve a place free of fear and pain.” Mace says grimly. Plo only nods silently.

Finally, after what feels like hours of endless traffic and lines of speeders, as the scenery switches from the warm famer’s markets to towering gothic palaces they reach the Tarkin estate. Gaudy in both design and colour, glass and gold clash together in a brawl of architecture that’s nothing like the lived-in homey stone walls of the Temple. It’s hideous, much like the man barricaded inside.

The street is deathly silent, not a police cruiser in sight, it’s not surprising in the slightly but none the less, disappointing. Tarkin has been given a limp wristed reaction now that the shock has worn off and Rex has been carted away behind the curtain while his brother remained stiff lipped about the situation. The is nothing interesting to hold the civilian’s attention until the next chapter, which would all change once the press gets wind of the stunt they’re about to pull. While not officially sanctioned by the Council he is the Grand Master, and he will do whatever he damn well pleased and deal with the consequences later, as long as it means he can do the job he has dedicated his life too.

“His house is of interesting design...” Plo mutters and Mace knows he’s frowning under his mask.

“You mean hideous?” Mace translates and a gust travels through the breathing apparatus, loud enough to know that the Kel Dor had agreed with a near silent laugh.

They walk together up the stone path that leads to the front door and he’s somewhat surprised that gaggle of guards haven’t tried to put several dozen holes in them yet. But, if Tarkin did sends guards out to try and prevent them from coming to him, it would only draw more attention to his crimes. Everyone knows that people only run and or resist when they have something to hide.

“Do you plan on knocking?” Plo asks, knowing full well that he doesn’t.

“No.” He still answers before gathering the force under his palms, feeling its power as it molds to his will, within seconds he exhales and shoves the invisible force outwards the and door cracks inwards, nearly off it’s hinges without a hint of resistance.

“Admiral Tarkin! I do believe we have much to discuss.” Mace bellows into the cavernous foyer, as expected, silence greets them.

“He’s barricaded himself in his office.” Plo Koon murmurs.

Mace senses him too, an angry ball of self righteousness, outrage and fear, an ugly combination that presses on his mind like a sinus cold.

“Then let’s pay him a visit.” Mace says and Plo nods, he can feel the mirth of the nod just simmering under the surface. Plo has always enjoyed the times where he can freely be agitator, a stirrer of the pot one would say.

The stairs leading up are an awful sparkling gold spiral, because of course it would be. He purposefully sticks his hands back into the sleaves of his brown cloak as he follows the trail of Plo Koon’s black and gold fabric to the highest floor in the house.

“You Jedi have no business here!” Tarkin shouts from behind the solid, polished wooden doors that stand between them and their elusive Admiral.

“Now Admiral, there is no need to be difficult, you really didn’t think you could get away with raping a GAR officer, did you?” Plo Koon says, an under current of a growl making his voice rumble out of his rebreather.

A simple swipe of the Force cracks the door wide open and he slips his lightsaber off his belt under the cover of his cloak, as he sees Tarkin wavering a pistol between him and Plo as they enter his office

“I’ve done nothing wrong! Those clones aren’t people, they’re war ordnance, property! That fool of a Captain had gotten too bold and allowed himself to think he is the person Skywalker treats him as, I simply reminded him of his pace, he’s nothing but a whore bought and paid for by Republic credits.” Tarkin growls, sounding near unhinged as sweat visibly trails down his hairline.

He hadn’t expected the erratic behaviour from the man, casual indifference maybe, but not a mad man wailing to the skies.

“We will see, I do believe the Court will have the final say in anything pertaining to you and Captain Rex, oh and Admiral? Or should I say ex-Admiral Tarkin? Everything you say now can and will be held against you during you trial. Until that date Commander Fox has freed a cozy new cell just for you, I’m sure he’ll take the best care of you.” Plo says cheerily which does nothing to calm the man’s manic behaviour.

“Now, Tarkin we can do this the easy way or hard way.” Mace says as he hovers his thumb over the button to ignite his lightsaber.

“Lay your filthy hands on me and see what happens.” Tarkin barks out.

Oh, he was hoping the man would say something so foolish.

* * *

“Master!” Ahsoka shouts as she runs into his arms and he won’t lie by saying he didn’t have to blink back tears of relief a they pool into his eyes.

Their fight isn’t over, far from it, but now Ahsoka would have a fighting chance at a fair trial. He also isn’t going to lie and say that he doesn’t need her, Rex had been so still and so pale when the doctors and droids had hooked him up to an array of monitoring devices.

He can barely touch the memory, it’s too fresh, too painful. He had failed his captain, his brother, a man that has laid his life down for him countless times. He had failed him in his blindness, he should’ve known better than to ever trust Tarkin with his men or at all, he has been foolish.

“Commander Fox has told me what’s been happening while I’ve been in custody, where’s Rex? I need to see him.” Ahsoka demands there’s shock swirling with the undercurrent of fear and anger in her eyes and he knows he mirrors the same emotions.

“Ahsoka I don’t think that’s a good idea right now, he’s off in a bad way, I don’t think you want to see him right now…” Anakin says as he trails off even though he knows once her mind is made up there is little he can do other than ordering her, that will stop her from doing what she has set out to do.

He won’t order her from seeing Rex even if would be for her benefit, Rex means everything to Ahsoka. A brother, a mentor, a friend, and he knows the sinister truth of the situation won’t stay hidden for long from his padawan, she’s too sharp to let things go unnoticed. 

“I need to see him, I just need to see that he’s still breathing.” Ahsoka says with a crumpling expression, her stone face slipping off like dirt off an eroding cliffside.

“Okay, let’s go give him a visit.” Anakin concedes and she hugs him again, hard enough to remind him that the scrawny little girl he had first taken on is becoming a strong young woman. The revelation is bittersweet yet still makes him unimaginably proud of the little Togruta.

He’s glad to finally leave the prison, the grey walls always seem to echo moans of pain and feelings of anger and resentment when he walks the. He’s never, in all the times he’s entered the building has he enjoyed his time there. He doesn’t miss the way the guards flinch away form him, it makes him feel monstrous and reminds him that not every clone has a Jedi to protect them. The Republic had thrown them into the world and had essentially said ‘figure it out or die’.

He feels as exhausted as he knows Padmé feels most days, constantly trying to push against a tidal wave of corruption in order to make things better and being rewarded by scorn and assassination attempts. It makes him appreciate her work a lot more, at least more than he did earlier in the war. He feels stupid for trying to pull her away for his own selfish gain.

But that is all in the past, all he can do is try and be better, for his men, his padawan, his wife.

“Master? What does this mean for me? For the Republic?” Ahsoka asks after remaining silent for much of the speeder trip to the hospital.

He doesn’t have an answer.

“The bombing investigation is being transferred to an internal affair and a new team is being put together to examine what evidence has already been collected by Tarkin’s team and the guard, it will be a proper investigation. The Council has agreed to let you visit Rex due to your relationship but they still need to question you Ahsoka, things still aren’t great but now without Tarkin interfering this will be a proper trial.” Anakin explains and she slumps further int her seat.

“So, I’m still guilty? Are you on convict watching duty?” Ahsoka says bitterly.

“Ahsoka you have to understand that because you ran people suspect things, we still don’t know who murdered Letta or who bombed the Temple, working with Ventress also has people questioning your loyalty. I understand your frustration and your turmoil, but you must work with us if are going to figure out who actually bombed the Temple.” Anakin tells her, she gives him a bitter smile and nods her head in understanding before turning to look at the passing traffic and buildings.

Yet again they’re being pulled in too many directions to count, spread thin across the galaxy while the Republic expects them to solve every indecency that comes up. But, he trusts Kit Fisto, more than any another Master to handle the investigation.

He knows that now it is an internal investigation their hands won’t be bound with Republic restrictions, he does worry for what the outcome will mean for his padawan. Betrayal runs deep in her force signature and he can only hope that they haven’t destroyed her faith in them completely by hunting her like a criminal. The best case is that things go back to normal once the charges are cleared, but he knows that the best case has a slim to none chance of happening, worst case…He doesn’t want to think about worse case.

Worst case Rex dies from whatever is poisoning him, Tarkin get’s out of the charges and Ahsoka is condemned for life for a crime she hasn’t committed.

He can’t let that happen. He won’t let that happen.

“Are you ready?” He asks her as they park the speeder behind the looming hospital.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, now come on.” She says and he nods his head as he jumps out after her, hopefully at this time Plo Koon and Mace have pulled Tarkin from his fortress and put him under arrest.

Ahsoka pulls the green hood of her clock lower over her face as they walk into the foyer. One of the guards had noticed the discarded fabric in the lower levels and had given it to him under the table, mumbling that the cells tended to get cold.

He had clasped Ripcord’s arm in thanks, more generous than he could describe with words for the young trooper’s small action. He charms the hospital receptionist easily and they give him two visitor passes with a flirty smile, if he had used a slight push of the Force to influence their mind to gloss over Ahsoka, nobody really needs to know.

They’re keeping Rex on the 24th floor in critical care. It’s better than what they could’ve expected but he also suspects that Fox had pulled a couple of strings to ensure the best care Rex could get, probably enforced by Windu.

“Snips, he may not be awake when we go in, I just wanted to warn you, I was telling you honestly when I said that he looks bad.” Anakin warns, feeling the tremble of anxiety across their training bond as they stand in front of Rex’s room.

“I understand Master.” Ahsoka replies simply as she palms the door open.

They walk into to see Rex struggling to sit up, which immediately sends alarm bells going off in his head. He wants to rush to his side to help him but it requires all his self control to stop himself and his padawan from doing so.

“Hey Rex, we didn’t expect to see you awake so soon.” Anakin says cheerily, trying for a soft unobtrusive tone, none the less Rex still jerks like he’s taken another pot-shot to the chest.

He snaps his head up looking at them with wide brown eyes that dart between them, his signature is a mix of pain and humiliation. His chest is bare as the hospital sheet pools in his lap, his warm brown skin is littered with teeth and scratch marks in between bruises and cuts and he has to bite his cheek to keep the rage down.

Getting angry in front of him is the last thing he needs. Neither does Ahsoka, as he can see how her sienna skin has gone ashen, how her eyes are wide with shock.

“General Skywalker, Commander Tano, I thought the Temple would have you two busy with the investigation.” Rex says timidly, the tone is brittle.

“A lot has changed, the Council has made up two teams to handle your and Ahsoka’s situations, we had time so of course we came to see you, how are you feeling? And Please, call me Anakin.” Anakin says, he isn’t the man’s commanding officer in the hospital room.

“Of course, Gen-Anakin, if I am being honest, I feel like I’ve been trampled by an eopie stampede...” Rex says with a huff and a grimace.

He sees the blonde man shift and knows Rex is struggling to find a comfortable sitting position. The bacta they had used earlier is only a temporary fix, he’ll have to go into surgery to fix the….tearing.

“That’s understandable, the doctors are still trying to isolate what you were drugged with so they can administer an antidote to get your recovery on the way. Fair warning, we won’t be your first visitors, officers and other Jedi will be here to question you later after Master Windu and Plo Koon bring Tarkin in.” Anakin says, the more he speaks he can see shock freeze Rex expression.

“Anakin, with all due respect, why?” Rex says with a deep frown.

“What do you mean ‘why’, Rex? Tarkin committed a crime, several times! Of course, we’re going to arrest and prosecute him.” Ahsoka says loudly, making the blonde man flinch.

He needs to clam her down before their visit spins out of control, they came here to offer support their captain, not agitate him.

“Kid, I’m sorry to say this, but they won’t care, no one will, clones have been murdered and people have gotten mild slaps on the wrist, I’m property, an object! I should be thankful that Tarkin let me live, that he only…that he only…” Rex shouts, starting to hyperventilate.

“Hey, hey Rex, it’s okay, we came to help. We can go if you want, if you aren’t ready for us to be here.” Anakin say softly, raising his hands.

The blonde man deflates with a deep sigh, it’s heartbreaking seeing his friend like this.

“No, it’s okay, it’s all just so unexpected….” Rex says, he can hear Ashoka sniffle next to him. “Come here kid, I’m sorry for yelling at you.” Rex adds as he motions for Ahsoka to come closer.

She doesn’t hesitate to inch forwards until she falls into his chest, wrapping her arms around his back in a tight hug as he hugs her back.

“We’re the ones that should be sorry, we’re supposed to protect you!” Ahsoka says into his chest, sniffling again as Rex runs a soothing hand down her back lekku.

“You were busy running for your life, Tarkin knew exactly what he was doing, you couldn’t have known since I didn’t tell anyone, Fox and Wolffe weren’t supposed to find out either. This isn’t you fault so I don’t want either of you taking any blame, both of you.” Rex says firmly, which pushes his own self doubt back a litter harder into the darkness.

It feels a little easier to breathe hearing that from him. It’s been easier to breath ever since they saw that he is no longer doing his best impression of a corpse, he doesn’t look well but it’s a step up from being in a coma but his fight could spiral out of control at any time.

“We still have a few hours left before we have to be back at the Temple, I was going to grab something for breakfast, can I get you anything?” Anakin asks and is glad when Rex gives him a lopsided smile.

“Please, the slop here is worse than Kamino ration cubes. Anything would be better.” Rex replies humorously.

“Okay one flavoured breakfast coming up, Snips you can stay with Rex while I grab us some food. I’ll be back in 20 minutes.” He says before jogging out of the private room, one thing at a time, breakfast first.

Breakfast is easy, he can do that. Then he will have to dig his heels in and get some actual work in, good thing he has a well know humanitarian Senator for a wife, Padmé will know what to do.

She always does.


	8. She Really is Amazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies, I meant to upload this last week but ya know I got soup brain.
> 
> A little warning for the flashback section for drugging and implied sexual abuse and assault.

**Two days earlier….**

_“Just one last time…” Rex mutters to himself as he drags his feet along the cold hard metal of the HQ building halls._

_But he knows he has to, Ahsoka is in a GAR detainment facility, being held in a cell like she’s some kind of criminal, he has no choice, he can’t walk away now. Her life depends on what the Admiral decides to do. If he refuses or even slightly angers the man now, he’s basically hanging the noose for Ahsoka to step into, he will heal, he will be fine._

_They’ll be deployed again soon and then parsecs will be between him and the Admiral, he’ll be the Chancellor’s favourite pet civilian solider on Coruscant and he’ll continue to be the faceless soldier fighting beside the hero with no fear. He will be fine, he has to be._

_He wants so desperately to turn around and run as far as he can to get away from the mess he’s made his life into but he knows the Admiral would find his eventually. The punishment would be much worse than a handful of belt lashes across his ass in a medical examination room._

_His heart thuds painfully in his chest as he inches closer and closer to the door until he’s standing right in front of it, his knuckles feel numb as they tap on the door._

_Just once more, for the kid._

_The door slides open for him and he almost chokes on his tongue when he sees that Tarkin isn’t alone._

_Tarkin isn’t alone._

_Panic seizes him immediately like a force grip around his neck and he almost runs out of the office the moment he sets eyes on their audience. The weight of his defencelessness is no more apparent than in the current moment. His pistols are in his footlocker under his bunk as per the Admiral’s instructions and the empty holsters feel like lead weights. There is no point to their carefully constructed fantasy if Tarkin saw that he could kill him at any moment with a flick of his wrist and an itchy trigger finger. Tarkin likes it when he looks defenseless._

_“Ah, Captain. Right on time, I would expect no less. Though silly me, I did happen to forget to mention that there had been a change of plans during our last meeting.” Tarkin slurs, swirling an amber drink in his hand, whether it’s his first or fifth it’s hard to tell._

_What he can tell is that there are three other men in the room, other Admirals or socialites from what he can tell from their clothing. They’ve been starring at him like he’s a fresh piece of meat and they’ve turned rabid in their wolf dens. They look eager to sink their teeth into him and if alarm bells weren’t going off before they’re blaring on the inside of his skull now._

_He needs to leave, he needs to get away._

_“What do you mean Admiral?” Rex asks nervously._

_“You see my wife is hosting a party later this evening and I find that I am lacking on proper entertainment for the guests, then I remembered of our little arrangement and thought that this could be the perfect way to clear Padawan Tano of any debt. A favour for a favour, it seems fair, wouldn’t you agree?” Tarkin asks and the crowd behind him chuckles._

_Letting the Admiral do anything he wanted to him is one thing that was his choice, he has been reduced to nothing but a whore on command for the Admiral. However, his torture by the Admiral has an end, it has a purpose._

_He will learn to live with the violations the man has caused, but thinking of what the men behind him will do if he give himself over makes him gag, there will be no escape from them. There will be no end if he lets more people touch and degrade him, he never wanted Tarkin to touch him in the first place._

_“I’m going to have to refuse Admiral Tarkin, I hope you find a suitable replacement for your party, should we move our meeting to a later date?” Rex asks feigning innocence even as the men in the room scowl darkly. He tries inching towards the door as subtly as he can. Hopefully he can get a head start on his grand retreat._

_“Oh, but Captain, this really isn’t up for debate. This is more of a command than a request.” Tarkin says slamming his glass down on his desk in anger before he walks towards him. The other three men follow and he tries to calculate who to take out first, he may have whored himself out but he’s still an ACR captain, no mere civilians would be able to over power him._

_Consequences be damned, he’s getting out of the office if it’s the last thing he does._

_“I don’t take orders from you.” He hisses before he turns on his heel and rushes the door, plenty ready to jam the door open his with shoulder bell and sheer stubbornness._

_It would’ve worked, the doors in HQ, especially office doors are often on the flimsier side. But he hadn’t considered the fact of Tarkin rigging his office full of traps and weaponry._

_The door electrifies the second before his shoulder hits the metal and hundreds of volts travel through his body in a painful breath stealing sizzle. The burn fries his nerves and brain before he even hits the ground as he’s thrown back at the feet of the predators, who only laugh when he groans in pain._

_“Oh, I should have warned you, the door can be electrified on command, I was hoping that you wouldn’t be too difficult, but you clones are known to be stubborn at he worst of times, an unfortunate holdover from your predecessor. Now I have something here for you that will help you relax. Be the obedient clone I know you were bred to be and just do as you’re told.” Tarkin says and he can only hiss in agony and frustration as the other men in the room pin him too the floor as the Admiral straddles his chest._

_He’s holding two red pills in his hand and in another poor moment of decision making he spits in Tarkin’s face. The spit splatters against his cheek and slides down his face, everyone in the room freezes in a shock for several seconds. Then with a rage he’s never seen before, Tarkin backhands him across the face leaving his vision spinning and face throbbing._

_“I will forgive that infraction only once, now open up or I will personally execute Ahsoka Tano myself.” Takin seethes, he has no choice, he’s trapped, outnumbered and paralyzed._

_He opens his mouth with like it’s a rusty hinge, Tarkin doesn’t waste time in shoving the pills into his mouth and clamping a hand over his lips and nose. He has the choice of either to swallow or suffocate._

_“Now be a good boy and swallow for me, you’ve had lots of practice swallowing things I give you.” Tarkin purrs._

_For a fraction he hopes Tarkin will just smother him, but he knows he isn’t that lucky. The Admiral strokes his other hand down his throat and his body responds automatically with a gag reflex that triggers him to swallow. He does his best to buck and shout, to break away from the men, desperately like a dying animal but the Admiral only coos and shushes him until he finally swallows the pills with a sick dread._

_He has doomed himself. He barely feels it when they rip his armour off._

“Ahsoka, you called?” Padmé asks as she enters her room.

With the Jedi now in charge of the investigation they were able to recover the corrupted audio file from the cell, proving her innocence and clearing the murder of Letta from her crimes. She wonders if Letta’s murderer will ever be found or if she will become one of the many murdered victims added to the ever growing list of crimes gone unsolved.

She knows hatred or petty anger aren’t the ways of the Jedi, but she can’t make herself mourn for the woman. She had turned her own dedicated, loving husband into a living bomb and had killed so many people for petty revenge, for a statement. She didn’t deserve to die the ways she did, but manipulated or not she still committed a crime.

Ahsoka knows the woman will join the others who have died to stalk her dreams like an ever-looming presence that war has created in her subconscious.

“Padmé, what’s going to happen to me? To Rex?” Ahsoka asks as she curls tighter around herself.

Kit Fisto had moved her from the GAR facility to be put under house arrest under the watch of the Jedi, as it became more apparent that not only did she not kill Letta she also hadn’t been the one to kill the troopers in the hall.

Plo Koon had took her aside and told her the house arrest was also partly for her protection, someone was after her and they would only become more desperate to silence her as their plans slowly unravel.

She has Master Vos’ psychometric powers and the Maser himself to thank for all he’s been able to clear up. From what little she has been told he was currently investigating the warehouse they found her in, she can only hope they find what they’re looking for there.

Master Fisto had assured her that he was in complete trust of her, but she still ran, and they still need questions to be answered. So here she sits, unable to do much as one of her closest friends fights for his life in a hospital far from the Temple. All she can do is wait until they find the true puppeteer behind the curtains and finally get the proper justice all the victims deserve.

“That really depends on what you want to do Ahsoka, I don’t know how much I can help you now that the investigation is an internal affair with the Order. You know that we’ll support you no matter what you decide or what happens?” Padmé says gently and she lets a choked hiccup escape her in a moment of weakness.

She buries her face deep into her arms to sniffle to shield her tears from Padmé’s sympathetic gaze.

However, her facade doesn’t last long as the older woman scoops her into a hug.

“Oh Ahsoka, I am so sorry.” She says which only makes her sob harder as she tires to speak between her gasping breaths as she clutches onto Padmé’s expensive suit.

“I saw into Rex’s mind when Anakin and I went to go visit him, I saw what Tarkin did to him, why he did it. This is all my fault, if I hadn’t run, if I hadn’t been in Letta’s cell than Tarkin wouldn’t have gotten Rex alone and done all of those things to him. It’s all my fault.” Ahsoka says blubbering

She hasn’t felt this miserable since Zygerria.

“Ahsoka, listen to me, none of what happened to Rex is your fault, or Anakin’s, this is only the fault of Tarkin, you had nothing to do with his sexual assault, remember that. Rex will need you as much as you need him and it won’t help anyone if you beat yourself into the ground for a crime you didn’t commit.” Padmé reasons.

She only hugs the woman harder in response.

“Ahsoka, I know this is hard for you, but this will end, it may not go back to normal, but you will start a new chapter once we can close this case you can decide what and where you want to be and go without any of this garbage weighing you down. I know that whatever you choose I will support you no matter what.” Padmé says again.

“What if I can’t stay?” Ahsoka asks timidly.

“Whether you stay or not is completely up to you, the Jedi Order is your life Ahsoka but sometimes people need to step back from what hurts them even if it’s the only thing they know. We can never be sure if all the choices we make are right, not even I know if I’ve made all the right choices in my life. But I know holding onto regrets don’t benefit anyone, you have trust yourself.” Padmé admits and hearing the older woman say it makes her feel a lot better, a little less like a fuck up.

“Okay…Okay, thank you Padmé, that means a lot to me. Thank you...for being here.” Ahsoka mumbles as she pulls away and scrubs at her tear-stained face.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else, is there I can do for you before I go? I’m meeting with Commander Fox to start collecting evidence for Tarkin’s trial, I heard Masters Windu and Koon and to pull him and his wife kicking and screaming from their estate.” Padmé says drily, the image makes her chuckle darkly.

“Could you pass a message along to Rex for me?” Ahsoka asks hopefully.

“Of course, I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear from you.” Padmé replies as she rummages for a flimsi and stylus for Ahsoka to write a short letter.

She doesn’t quiet know if she can adequately put down into words how she feels so she hopes the letter isn’t too nonsensical, she keeps it light hoping to cheer him up somehow.

“Do you think Tarkin will be punished for his crimes?” Ahsoka asks again and Padmé’s face twists into a grimace.

“It’s hard to tell now, as a clone his position in the Republic is complicated but I will sure try my damned hardest to get Tarkin put away for however long Rex wants. I can promise you that.” Padmé declares fiercely.

She can see why her Master looks at the Senator like she has hung the stars and the moon personally, she really is amazing.


	9. By Order of the Supreme Chancellor

“Hey, Rex, you up for a visitor?” Anakin asks as he knocks on his door.

He’s alone this time, Ahsoka must be at the Temple now. Guiltily he’s somewhat relieved that it is only the older Jedi visiting now. He and Ahsoka will have a lot to work out once everything is said and done, but right now he can’t handle the overwhelming guilt from a 16 year a girl who has only known violence ever since stepping off the planet.

She has so much more growing and living to do and her life doesn’t need to be weighed down by the oppressive guilt she carries over his current condition. Time and space between them would be best even if it aches to not bring his trusted commander close, to hold her tight and say that everything would be okay. They have to settle their own heaping piles of garbage before they could even think of things between them going back to normal. Anakin on the other hand was a simple case, his rage is a force to reckon with but he has the life experience to understand not give Rex his deploring pity.

He also probably can’t physically more than one person in the room right now.

He still feels shitty in every possible way, he feels like an exposed nerve from the toxin that has glued itself to the very cell walls of his body.

While being awake is an improvement he knows he won’t be going anywhere anytime soon unless Tarkin spilt the beans and what he drugged him after making swallow the pills. The last time he checked simple anesthetics don’t kill you slowly. It’s honestly still a surprise that he’s still in the private room getting consistent care from polite and warm medical staff and not slapped back into his armour on a ship to his next campaign.

From what he’s heard from the chatty medical staff his attack has caused quite the commotion, even with Tarkin being a big name he hadn’t think it would cause such an uproar. It’s not like it hasn’t been consistently happening to his brothers the moment they left Kamino.

But he won’t question if he’s deserving of the standard of treatment when he knows he’s damn well deserved it like any other brother, the fact that they have to earn such a thing still miffs him, but, one issue at a time.

“Pull up a chair General, you have a marvelous selection of three different colours of plastoid that are all equally uncomfortable.” Rex says drily.

“You’ve been holding out on me, I knew there was a sense of humour under all that armour…Oh, before I forget, speaking of your armour, we’ve recovered all of it and it’s waiting in Commander Fox’s office whenever you want to put it back on.” Anakin says with a smile.

A wash of relief slides over him from head to toe, it felt stupid to worry about something as replaceable as armour, but it is the only thing that was legally his. He owned it, he also worked damn hard on customizing it. It is a one of a kind that he could never replicate.

“Thank you, General, that means a lot to me.” Rex says and the man ducks his head shyly.

“I know that it’s construction caused a lot of swearing from you and Kix when he had to bandage up all those burns you let fester. I thought he was going to bring the roof down.” Anakin replies with a muffled laugh.

“I can admit that wasn’t my best moment in medica decisions but in my defense I didn’t think they were that bad until my fingers started swelling.” Rex replies with a chuckle as he feels a blush burn across his face.

He knows he has lucked out with the General, the man has become more a brother than a superior over the course of the war and for all his faults he has never not once made Rex, or his brothers feel inferior and disposable. Chatting with the General brings back a sense of normalcy he has sorely missed since the entire fiasco had occurred a week ago. The ball was finally back in their court and now they finally had the power to make the next move, but he isn’t so foolish to think that the next several days or weeks wouldn’t possibly spiral out of control.

Even if they do, he has his support.

“Listen, I don’t want to push you into doing anything you want to do but I know a few senators who have been biting at the chance to defend you in court for Tarkin’s trial. And a few of the boys have been foaming at the mouth to come to see you, they’re all going a little crazy while under lockdown.” Anakin says softly as leans in closer.

“I didn’t think I would have a trial General…I guess I can’t have a better defence than Senators, I would be honoured to meet with them. I’m not exactly going anywhere so I guess my schedules free while I’m not chasing after the men and making sure the shinies get to bed on time.” Rex says with a tired huff, stunned to say anything more.

“Great! I’ll tell them right away, and Rex, you know you can talk to me about anything right? If you ever want company just give me a call.” Anakin says as he pats his shin before levering himself out of the chair.

“Thank you General, your help means a lot and I don’t think I would want any other Jedi by my side for this.” Rex says earnestly and he can see how the Jedi’s blue eyes sparkle with adoration.

“Of course Rex, I saw a few vendors outside I’ll bring you a few things up before I head back to the temple. From what Obi-Wan has told me they may be close to a breakthrough for Ahsoka’s case.” Anakin says before slipping out the door.

Then he’s alone again, feeling drained yet filled with a nervous energy. His body sinks back into the bed but his mind runs laps a million miles a second. Senators want to defend him in court? Tarkin’s getting a real trial instead of a slap on the wrist? It’s confusing but also, deep down, very relieving, or at least an emotion close to it that he can’t describer.

He has no doubt that Tarkin will be put back into his position by the end of the month, but it’s nice to know people are willing to fight tooth and nail for him. Even more so when it’s people outside the GAR that he’s barely had a passing glance with. Senator Amidala, he could understand, they call often enough after bonding in that damned cursed bunker and she knows to call him when she wants a truthful report about the General’s condition and the war effort.

she also sends a good collection of holo-novels to read. Of all the outcomes that the war could produce he hadn’t expected a friendship with a senator or to be privy to her secret marriage with his Jedi General.

Well secret in the loosest terms, he’s surprised that many people were simply not in the know of their glaringly obvious love for each other.

He settles down to try to get more comfortable in his bed as he waits for Anakin to come back with street food he knows he’ll gorge himself on. If he did have credits to spend he knows they would probably go to all the greasy, flavourful delicacies that were served out of those vendor stands.

Rex feels slightly smug about his enhanced metabolism knowing it would be the envy to many nat-borns. He may not have human rights but at least he can eat whatever he wants

However, when his door opens again and when he’s about to ask Anakin what the selection of the day was and if he had a chance to say high to Tezla, he hadn’t expected a helmeted Fox to pin him to the bed with a loaded blaster pressed to the soft pallet under his jaw.

“Fox… Brother, what are you doing? What’s happened?” Rex wheezes as the other clone presses down harder on his chest, he distantly hears the medical equipment blare in alarm.

“You are found in contempt of the Republic for causing political discourse, by order for the Supreme Chancellor I am ordered to fulfil your immediate execution.” Fox says robotically and Rex seizes with panic.

“Fox snap out of it! It’s me, I know this isn’t you.” Rex strains to say as Fox cocks his gun.

“False CT-7567, I am fulfilling my prime prerogative ordered by the Supreme Chancellor.” Fox replies as if he’s a droid and Rex knows only a dirty trick will allow him to survive the next few seconds.

He bunches his legs up, miraculous sneaking them by a brainwashed Fox and he slams his feet into his brother’s codpiece with all his might. Sending him careening off the bed with a wail of deep-seated agony and he knows once Fox snaps out of it that he’ll have to make it up to him for crushing his cock under hard unmovable plastoid. At least he knows it’s actually Fox under the armour, brainwashed or not having your cock smashed under your armour is going to be painful.

He scrambles out of the moment Fox hits the floor and tries to wrestle the blaster from his hands. But he’s at a disadvantage, his body is screaming in agony and he’s seconds away from passing out and Fox is a master of hand-to-hand combat and is never a fair fighter.

Fox grabs his left pectoral and squeezes the muscle with a brutal grip until Rex cries out in pain, his arm falling limply to his side completely useless. Even brainwashed he knew to go for his old injuries.

He sees Fox falter for a quick second and Rex doesn’t think before kicking the gun out of his hand, it skitters away to the other end of the room with a dull thunk. Surely someone would have noticed to commotion now, they aren’t exactly fighting quietly.

Fox growls, something a little too human for apparently turning into a droid overnight. He’s down one arm and the room wavers and spins precariously, he’s going to pass out and then Fox won’t have anything to stop from putting two bolts in his head by the Chancellor’s order.

The fucking Chancellor is trying to kill him, wow, doesn’t he feel special today.

He’s got one shot, either grab the gun and stun Fox or make a mad dash for the door and hope his legs don’t give out on him. He can feel Fox’s eyes bore into with a hateful intensity and the tension in the room thickens.

Rex had only thought there could be two options, he hadn’t expected the third where Cody and Wolffe slam the door open and promptly stun Fox with twin stun rings in the same moment. He falls limply to the ground, his marionette string served from the puppet master.

“Fuck, that was too close.” Wolffe mutters as he warily walks towards Fox, nudging him onto his back, giving an extra little kick to ensure he isn’t faking his limpness. He quickly snaps on a pair of stun cuffs and strips him of his hidden weapons before jumping away again.

“Rex, are you okay?” Cody asks desperately and he can only laugh in wary relief.

“I think I’m going to pass out.” Rex mutters, there is barely light in the room and his brother his barely a blurry image, he doesn’t even feel his legs give out on him when reality does fade to darkness, dragging him down with it.

At least no one can call him a liar.


	10. I Gave Them Everything

“What happened?” Anakin demands as he runs around the corner and down the hall just as Stone and Thorn escort Fox’s stasis chamber into the lift.

Cody rubs harshly at his eyes until he almost sees stars. How did he start explaining to the Jedi that Fox, the brother who started the investigation, the one who brought Rex’s assault to light so that Tarkin could be persecuted. The one who had supported his brother the most through his harrowing ordeal had been trying to pump Rex full of blaster bolts thirty seconds earlier?

“Commander Fox attempted to assassinate Rex.” Wolffe reports stiffly and Cody can see the way Anakin’s eyes go stormy, how his hands clench, how his jaw twitches.

He’s seen the man do the same thing every single time he’s about to have an outburst. An angry outburst is the last thing they need in a busy hospital with sirens blaring and several handfuls of terrified onlookers watching them. They need the continued support of the public if Tarkin is even going to make it to trial instead of quietly disappearing into the night.

He’s seen the way civvies treat Jedi, they fear them, and seeing an angry one will only terrify them further.

“Anakin, this way, Rex is fine, the doctors say his condition isn’t going to worsen any further, he’s just sleeping for now. We’re being watched out here and this is obviously much bigger than we thought, now c’mon.” Cody jerks his head to Rex’s door, he knows saying a Jedi’s name gets to them the most, it’s even more jarring when a clone says it.

Luckily, Skywalker doesn’t take any offence to Cody calling him Anakin as he deflates slightly and follows the two Commanders into Rex’s room.

The heart monitor beats in a stable succession when they close the door behind them, it’s the only sound that fills the room. It’s a relief, even if a minor one, his brother is back into being unconscious with a frown of discomfort plastered on his face, but he isn’t dead. The only difference is that the medical staff have placed his arm in a sling and slathered his left pectoral in bacta. By the looks of it, they’ve also changed his intravenous fluids as well as treated the superficial injuries he had arrived at the hospital with.

A tiny voice in the back of his skull reminds him that those superficial injuries were bite and scratch marks.

The level of care that Rex is getting still surprises him, he’s saddened that it surprises him, but he’s never had any lofty dreams of better treatment on Coruscant. However the situation is different, he doubts people would remain silent if a rape victim had been treated poorly while receiving care in the hospital. He wishes the nat-borns would make up their minds, do they hate and fear them? Or care and love them?

Still, the power of love isn’t exactly going to get them recognized as sentient beings, it isn’t going to help Rex. He feels a migraine start at the base of his skull when he tries to factor every single possibility of Rex’s fate, each spider-webbing into their own tangled messes and none coming out to be favourable.

“I don’t understand, why would the Commander attack Rex? He’s the one who brought the case to everyone’s attention, without him he would have never known about everything that has happened to Rex.” Anakin says as he flops down into a chair next to Rex’s bed as he drags his hands through his hair, pushing it back and messing it out of place more than usual.

“We’re in the middle of processing the video footage of the room, we have a few boys down in the main server room now, usually the guard would deal with the data extraction but if Fox is compromised I have a sinking feeling like the guard may also be compromised. Until we find out who or what fucked with his head we’ll have to work around the guard. Which will only lengthen the investigation.” Wolffe says as he looks tiredly over at Rex, still sound asleep.

“If we had a Senator publicly take over the investigation and work as the defendant for Rex would that work in skipping the processing of Rex’s case?” Anakin asks hopefully.

That plan could work in a perfect world, but even with an all-star team of Senators and lawyers spearheading the investigation, it would be a whole lot of effort to get minimal sentencing or even probation for the charge of destruction or vandalism of property. The fact is, the punishment wouldn’t even start to account for the crime while Rex, while all of them remained classified as a piece of property, the biggest hurdle of them all and one that they’ll probably never get over.

Senators in the past have tried to get them recognized as sentients and some of them had put a good amount of grit into their campaign but each time, inevitably, Palpatine vetoed any effort and the Senator would depart from their shaky government soon after.

Palpatine’s actions make sense even if they spit in every clone’s face. They are in a galaxy-wide war, if they are suddenly given the choice to leave the army, of course, many men would. The belief in the war has bled off and slithered down darkened drains, gone is the romance of going to war to make the galaxy better. The galaxy would never get better and no shiny-eyed clones would make the difference that it needed.

The brothers are tired, tired of death, tired of fighting, tired of being nothing meaningful outside of their bred purpose.

“Unless you know anyone that can grant citizenship and declare familial relation with Rex, Tarkin will still be tried like he just broke a blaster.” Wolffe replies.

Anakin frowns deeply for a few silent seconds until his head snaps up like he’s been pumped with electricity.

“I think I know someone who can help. Continue with your plan of action to find out what sent Fox off the deep end or who ordered Rex’s assassination on a silver platter.” Anakin says as he goes to stand from his chair.

He lays a gentle hand on Rex’s shin and he opens his mouth to say something else only for his comm to go off.

“Skywalker, you better get back to the Temple pronto, I can’t say much now but we’ve found the true culprit.” Quinlan’s voice sounds over his commlink.

Cody shares a look with Wolffe as they watch the man stare at his wrist with his mouth hanging open.

After a few more moments the man shakes himself, almost violently and speaks into his commlink.

“Of course, Master Vos, I’m on my way now.” Anakin says.

“We will keep you updates General, hopefully, whatever they’ve found can clear Commander Tano’s name, I know this hasn’t been easy on her, she’s a good kid.” Cody says as Anakin hangs by the doorway, obviously conflicted with which path to take and Cody can understand how torn the man must feel.

He may act tough, but the man is probably one of the most emotional Jedi he knows, to have both his Padawan and Captain in dire straights must be tearing him up. Epically when he can’t save either one to them with a simple flick of his hand.

“Thank you, Commander, your support is much appreciated.” Anakin says before he leaves the three clones alone.

“Ready to get to work?” Wolffe asks sarcastically once the door shuts.

“When am I not?” Cody replies just as dryly. “Let’s see what crawled dup Fox’s ass this time.”

* * *

She doesn’t recognize her friend as she’s led away by the Temple Guards to who knows where, she doesn’t know what will happen to Barriss, she doesn’t know if she wants to know what will happen. She should feel something, anything really, other than stark emptiness, maybe relief, maybe betrayal.

But, she feels nothing as the pedestal lowers her to the ground.

She feels the gloved hand of Master Vos on her shoulder and with a gentle pressure, he leads her out of the chamber where her friend had admitted to framing her every step of the way for the bombing and subsequent murders. She wonders if Barriss feels remorse for what she’s done or if the Darkside has already consumed and tainted whatever goodness that used to be between them.

She wonders what will come of Master Luminara.

She doesn’t feel any lighter when they walk into the well-lit halls of the Temple, she barely feels it when Anakin runs up to wrap her into a hug. She barely feels the tears that stream down her face that soak into his robe.

“She was supposed to be my friend...” She cries into his chest, Master Vos is no longer behind her and she suspects he has returned to the chamber to further discuss what has happened with the other Masters.

He also left to probably give them some privacy.

“Hey, hey, Ahsoka, it’s okay…sometimes people fall quietly into the darkness and you don’t notice and sometimes there’s nothing you can do to help them. Everything she did was wrong, it’s okay to be upset with her, to be angry but you can’t let those feelings consume you, or you’ll end up just like her.” Anakin says as he rests his chin on her montral.

“I know, I know…It’s just… I thought that I would be relieved to know that my name has been cleared but all I feel is conflicted, I’m ashamed I ran, ashamed I worked with Ventress, ashamed that I didn’t trust you to help me and of letting my emotions cloud my judgement. It’s….I gave everything I have to the Order and…the Council still didn’t believe me…I don’t know if I can continue along this path.” Ahsoka admits.

“Ahsoka…I…Listen, you are the best student I could have ever asked for, no ifs ands or buts, I would choose you a hundred times over if I ever had to choose again. I understand what you’re feeling, I do. How about we get out of here for a little bit so you can collect your thoughts. I have your lightsabers in my room. We can grab those before we go out for a breather, you can decide what you want to do outside the Temple. There are also a few things I need to talk with you that can’t be said here.” Anakin replies and she can only cry harder.

But eventually, she pulls away, blinks her tears back and collects herself, she has let herself feel her emotions and now it is time to understand them and release them into the Force. She cannot keep herself from feeling her emotions, but she can keep herself from letting them control her.

“Okay, I’m ready.” Ahsoka says and Anakin flashes her a brilliant smile that she can feel against her skin like he always did, and this time it almost feels normal.


	11. Return of the King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s sitting by Rex’s bedside when he gets the ping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry for the delay I was stuck on how to move forward with this fic but I have it all laid out now!

It had been a surprise to receive a hail from Senator Amidala, he rarely, if ever interacted with her. On the off times, he did see her, it is merely a passing moment and quick hello with Obi-Wan before going onto the next Senatorial duty. Distantly he had known that Rex had been close with the Senator just by association with Skywalker and their not-so-secret marriage. But he also suspects almost dying from an extinct plague and the general mayhem that surrounds Skywalker would lead the most unexpected people to bond.

He’s sitting by Rex’s bedside when he gets the ping, they had induced Rex into another coma after the attack to stop the spread of the newly discovered nerve agent he had been doped with after being taken hostage by Tarkin and his elitist lackies. Turns out that they hadn’t needed the man to spill his guts anymore, he had no more leverage against them. There’s still the fact of Fox falling under the influence of some sort of brainwashing and almost killing Rex when they had been alone for half a second, but at least he isn’t dying slowly anymore from an unknown poison.

He had also been informed that Commander Tano had been cleared of her charges, another problem dealt with and cleared off their plate, however, he thinks the poor girl won’t be done with this ordeal for quite some time. He feels for the young Commander, he really does, no 16-year-old girl should have gone through what she has. Hell, she never should have stepped foot on a battlefield in the first place, but she did. For her now, there’s no point in being reflective about the past and thinking about what-ifs, she can only move forwards.

He picks up the call after staring at it stupidly for several seconds.

He’s far too scruffy to have his bucket off but the Naboo Senator appears in an instant and it’s too late to cover up his ungroomed appearance. She doesn’t even bat an eye at the stubble just on the verge of becoming a beard and the dark bags under his eyes.

This call is for business then.

“Senator Amidala, what can I do for you?” He asks curiously.

“Commander Cody, I hope you are well as you can be given the current circumstances. As I have been going over the write-up for former Admiral Tarkin’s court orders I know there is quite a large hurdle of your sentient status to cross, however, several Senators and I have come up with a solution.” Senator Amidala says, he definitely feels like a scraggly loth cat while gazing upon her impeccably put-together appearance as she explains complex law procedures, but her words shift something in his chest, something that feels a little bit like hope.

“I am all ears Senator, if you do believe that there is a way to work around Rex’s clone status to increase the severity of Tarkin’s crime then I want to help in any way I can.” Cody tells her.

She takes a deep breath.

“As Senators, we have the ability to grant living being citizenships, while I am currently Rex’s lawyer I, unfortunately, cannot claim him as apart of my house, but Bail has volunteered to adopted Rex into his house. Not only would he be considered a full-fledged citizen of Alderaan he would be considered a member of the ruling house of Organa, in a way Rex would be his brother. We didn’t want to make any presumptions on what Rex would think but we need to make a decision quickly so we can deliver Tarkin’s court orders.” The Senator explains.

He gapes at he for several seconds in utter shock, his brain feels like it is stuck in a loop of incomprehension, could it really be that easy? Achieving sentient status seemed like a faraway dream that they probably would never reach, he had reconciled with himself years ago that he wouldn’t be anything but property, he had come to terms with it.

But now a Senator could just adopt them? Stroll up and say ‘he’s with us’? He almost laughs at how ridiculous it sounds, but laughing would be insulting and the Senator seems deadly serious.

Maybe the exhaustion is finally getting to him, this was supposed to be a relaxing shore leave. Offee just had to go bomb the Temple and Tarkin…well he doesn’t need to retell what Tarkin has done, especially to himself.

“I know you and your brothers have quite a code on brotherhood and we wouldn’t want to presume anything by going through with our plan without asking first.” Amidala continues and Cody is impressed and a little smitten with the fact that the Senators had put such an intense level of thought and research into their plan, instead of scrapping it together like it had been a last-ditch effort in an active-war zone.

“Senator, as I speak on behalf of my brother, I know he would readily accept your generous offer and would feel honoured to be inducted into the house of Organa. I don’t see a reality where Rex would refuse.” Cody tells her and she sags with relief, looking like several tones of stress have been lifted from her shoulders.

“Excellent, we will organize the proceedings and inform the Jedi promptly as I know that they have been rather involved in the past events. How is the Captain’s status, I was told he had been inducted into a coma again.” Padme asks curiously.

He knows he’s going to tell a half-truth before he even says anything, what happened with Fox didn’t need to be in the public quite yet, or even ever. They still have no idea what snapped in him to make him attack Rex.

No, the attack would remain a secret until they figured out the cause. There wasn’t a point in having it leak to the public that the leader of the Coruscant guard had snapped and turned into a braindead assassin.

“They were able to isolate the nerve agent Tarkin administered to Rex, they had to induce him into a coma to painlessly flush the toxin out of his body, but the medical staff here say that his outlook for recovery is looking good and complication-free.” Cody tells her, it’s mostly the truth.

“That is a relief here, we will need proof of primary citizenship holder consent so please comm me once Rex awakes, once the orders are served to Tarkin a date will be set and the court processes will start working like they’re hopped up on spice.” Senator Amidala says and he nods his head in understanding.

“Senator Amidala, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank you and every other Senator working on Rex’s case, this is far more than we could ever expect.” Cody tells her and she shakes her head.

“It’s the least we could do Commander, we have failed you many times before, if helping Rex will prevent needless violence against the men of the GAR in the future this is nothing, I will be in contact with you soon.” Senator Amidala says as she logs off leaving Cody in silence in Rex’s hospital room.

He smirks to himself when he thinks about how Rex will now officially match his name by being adopted into the ruling house of Alderaan, his brother couldn’t be much kinglier than that. Once this is all done, he knows he’s going to get intolerably drunk. He’ll have Wolffe drag him back to the barracks, that would be a good end to things. He puts a ‘get drunk enough to forget past two weeks’ in his mental calendar.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think! <3


End file.
